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Expository  Sermons  on  the  Old  Testament. 

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2.  Outlines  of  Sermons  on  the  Old  Testament. 

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EXPOSITORY  SERMONS 
AND  OUTLINES 

ON  THE 

OLD  TESTAMENT. 


|:cId  fork; 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  AND  SON, 
714  BROADWAY. 

1886. 


AUTHORS  OF  SERMONS. 


Right  Rev.  William  Alexander,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Derry. 
Right  Rev.  Alfred  Barry,  D.D.,  Primate  of  Australia. 

Very  Rev.  G.  G.  Bradley,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Westminster. 

Rev.  Stopford  A.  Brooke,  M.A.,  London. 

Rev.  Prof.  A.  B.  Davidson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Edinburgh. 

Ven.  Archdeacon  Farrar,  D.D.,  F.R.S.,  Westminster. 

Rev.  Canon  W.  J.  Knox-Little,  M.A.,  Manchester. 

Rev.  Canon  H.  P.  Liddon,  D.D.,  St.  Paul’s,  London. 

Rev.  Alexander  Maclaren,  D.D.,  Manchester. 

Rev.  George  Matheson,  D.D.,  Mellar. 

Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.D.,  London. 

Very  Rev.  J.  J.  S.  Perowne,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Peterborough. 
Rev.  Charles  Stanford,  D.D.,  London. 

Right  Rev.  William  Stubbs,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Chester. 
Very  Rev.  C.  J.  Vaughan,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Llandaff. 


262. 
Ex  76 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


The  following  expositions  are  all  gathered  from  fugitive 
or  unpublished  sources. 


601471 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/expositorysermonOOalex 


I.  Enoch.  Gen.  v.  21-24.  And  Enoch  lived  sixty  and  five 
years ^ and  begat  Methuselah:  and  Enoch  walked  zvith  God 
after  he  begat  Methuselah  three  hundi^ed  years ^ and  begat  sons 
and  daughters : a7id  all  the  days  of  Enoch  were  three  htmdred. 
sixty  and  five  years:  a7id  Enoch  walked  zvith  God:  a7td  he  was 
7wt ; for  God  took  himl^ 

Enoch  is  one  of  this  world’s  representative  men.  It  is 
written  of  him  by  the  writer  of  Genesis,  that  he  was  not 
found  amongst  the  dead  ; it  is  written  of  him  by  the  writer 
to  the  Hebrews,  that  he  was  “ translated  that  he  should 
not  see  death.”  Such  a contingency  could  never  have  be- 
fallen any  man  who  was  not  essentially  a representative  of 
his  race,  could  never  have  been  attributed  to  any  man  who 
had  not  impressed  his  race  with  a sense  of  his  representa- 
tive character.  In  the  world  of  literature,  in  the  world  of 
philosophy,  in  the  world  of  morals,  there  are  men  who, 
spiritually  speaking,  may  be  said  to  have  been  translated 
that  they  should  not  see  death,  but  these  have  all,  without 
exception,  been  representative  men.  Time  has  not  touched 
their  fame,  their  eye  is  not  dim  nor  their  natural  strength 
abated,  but  that  is  because  their  lives  were  universal  lives. 
They  were  not  men  of  a party,  of  a sect,  of  a school.  They 
did  not  walk  round  the  mere  environments  of  their  subject 
of  study.  They  did  not  occupy  themselves  with  the  ephe- 
meral and  accidental  questions  which  floated  in  their  con- 
temporaneous atmosphere  ; they  laid  hold  of  that  element 
in  their  atmosphere  which  was  to  constitute  the  breath  of 
every  life  and  to  form  the  being  of  every  time.  By  that 
grasp  of  the  universal  in  humanity,  they  being  dead  are 
yet  speaking. 

But  just  because  the  representative  men  of  the  world 
have  refused  to  occupy  themselves  with  the  accidental 

B 


2 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


questions  of  their  own  day,  they  have  incurred  the  fate 
involved  in  Mr.  Carlyle’s  aphorism  ; they  have  had  short 
biographies.  Let  us  look  at  this  man  Enoch  as  his  figure 
looms  down  upon  us  through  the  mist  of  six  millenniums. 
He  stands  amidst  a group  of  antediluvians  but  his  form 
is  easily  distinguishable  from  all  beside.  He  is  unques- 
tionably and  confessedly  the  hero  of  the  band,  the  one  life 
amongst  them  whom  posterity  has  judged  worthy  to  in- 
herit everlasting  youth  ; but  this  is  on  the  heavenly  side 
of  his  being.  When  we  look  at  the  earthly  side  we  are 
impressed  with  a contrast  between  him  and  his  contem- 
poraries of  a totally  different  kind.  From  the  spiritual 
standpoint  Enoch  is  the  greatest  man  of  the  band,  but 
from  the  earthly  standpoint  he  is  the  least  ; he  has  a short 
biography.  The  test  of  earthly  greatness  in  that  day  was 
the  duration  of  years,  and  measured  by  that  test,  Enoch 
sinks  far  beneath  his  contemporaries.  He  cannot  touch 
the  longevity  of  the  Adams,  the  Seths,  the  Cainans,  the 
Methuselahs ; his  life  embraces  but  a golden  year  of 
circling  suns.  The  measurement  of  the  man  must  be  esti- 
mated on  other  grounds  than  those  of  duration,  and  his 
greatness  must  be  determined  by  another  standard  than 
that  of  the  world.  His  physical  life  is  weaker  than  all 
the  physical  lives  around  him.  The  days  of  his  earthly 
pilgrimage  reach  not  to  the  days  of  those  who  went  before 
nor  of  those  who  followed,  yet  he  has  an  immortality  that 
belongs  not  to  them  ; he  is  not  found  among  the  dead. 

Now  in  all  this  there  is  nothing  accidental  ; it  is  the  law 
of  the  spiritual  life  in  every  age.  The  leading  men  of  the 
world  have  from  the  physical  side  had  the  least  eventful 
lives.  In  the  earliest  recorded  history  of  the  human  race 
the  thought  appears  with  marked  emphasis.  The  opening 
chapters  of  Genesis  contain  the  narrative  of  two  contem- 
poraneous orders  of  human  life  ; they  are  called  in  that 
record  respectively  the  Sons  of  God  and  the  Sons  of  Men, 
but  we  of  modern  times  should  best  describe  them  as  the 
men  of  matter  and  the  men  of  spirit.  The  one  race  is 
represented  by  Cain,  the  other  is  prefigured  in  Abel,  and 
even  in  their  first  representatives  their  distinctive  marks 
appear.  “ Cain  ” means  possession  ; “ Abel  ” signifies 
vanity  ; the  one  typifies  the  fulness  of  worldly  gain,  the 
other  represents  the  sense  of  worldly  emptiness.  All  down 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


3 


the  stream  of  the  antediluvian  centuries  the  characteristics 
of  these  races  are  manifest.  All  the  historical  interest 
centres  in  the  sons  of  Cain.  They  are  the  inventors  of 
musical  instruments,  the  forgers  of  brass  and  iron,  the  dis- 
coverers of  a mode  of  architecture,  the  initiators  of  an  art 
of  poetry,  the  earliest  builders  of  walled  cities  ; they  laid 
hold  of  the  civilization  of  this  world  and  therefore  they 
have  deservedly  the  higher  place  in  the  world’s  history. 

With  the  order  of  Abel,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  all  the 
reverse.  The  men  of  this  school  make  no  figure  in  the 
world  and  do  not  seek  to  make  any  figure.  We  know 
nothing  about  them  but  their  names  and  genealogies. 
Whatever  eventfulness  belonged  to  their  lives  must  have 
been  an  eventfulness  of  spiritual  experience  ; it  does  not 
manifest  itself  on  the  surface.  Their  life  is  a hidden  life  ; 
the  changes  and  revolutions  of  their  being  are  all  within, 
and  just  because  they  are  subsisting  on  that  which  is 
universal  to  humanity  there  is  nothing  in  experience  which 
can  catch  the  historian’s  eye. 

I.  We  have  implied  that  in  the  lives  of  these  represen- 
tative men  the  absence  of  an  outward  eventfulness  may  be  at 
once  supplied  and  explained  by  an  eventfulness  of  inward 
experience.  Now,  in  the  case  of  this  man  Enoch,  it  is 
emphatically  so.  Brief  as  is  the  record  of  his  life  it  is  long 
enough  to  give  us  a glimpse  behind  the  scenes,  and  in  the 
case  of  a representative  man  it  is  only  behind  the  scenes 
that  any  one  cares  to  see.  The  whole  narration  of  his 
history  is  summed  up  in  the  simple  words  of  a single 
sentence — “And  Enoch  lived  sixty  and  five  years  and  be- 
gat Methuselah  ; and  Enoch  walked  with  God  after  he 
begat  Methuselah  three  hundred  years  and  begat  sons  and 
daughters.”  Yet  in  that  artless  and  primitive  narrative,  so 
simple,  so  compressed,  so  unadorned,  there  is  revealed  a 
volume  of  rich  human  experience.  We  are  made  to  see 
that  in  the  heart  of  this  uneventful  life  there  was  indeed 
transacting  one  of  the  most  marvellous  events  which  the 
universe  can  ever  witness — the  birth  of  a human  soul  from 
darkness  into  light.  It  is  by  no  accident  that  after  the 
close  of  the  first  sixty-five  years  the  words  “ Enoch  lived  ” 
are  changed  into  the  words  “ Enoch  walked  with  God  ; ” 
it  is  the  expression  of  a great  and  solemn  fact  which  sooner 
or  later  every  spiritual  man  must  learn. 


4 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


It  tells  us  that  to  this  man  there  came  that  time  which 
comes  to  every  developed  soul  when  the  life  of  the  vege- 
table is  transformed  into  the  life  of  the  human,  when  the 
man  ceases  to  be  a mere  living  and  breathing  apparatus, 
and  begins  to  manifest  himself  as  a working  force  and 
power.  For  five  and  sixty  years — the  period,  let  us  say, 
of  an  antediluvian  youth — Enoch  simply  lived.  He  grew, 
as  the  plants  grew,  by  the  force  of  a spontaneous  nature 
unconscious  of  its  own  native  majesty.  He  entered  into 
relation  with  the  physical  world,  and  had  no  glimmering 
of  a suspicion  that  there  was  aught  within  him  which  had 
a right  to  transcend  that  world  ; through  all  these  years  he 
was  but  of  the  earth  earthy.  But  at  the  end  of  these 
years  there  came  a change,  and  from  the  manner  in  which 
the  dates  are  marked  we  may  infer  that  it  was  a sudden 
change.  Had  it  been  gradual  it  would  have  been  no  more 
possible  to  have  fixed  its  year  than  it  is  possible  to  fix 
the  year  when  the  natural  child  becomes  the  natural  man. 
How  it  came  we  know  not  ; whether  it  was  suggested  by 
circumstances  from  without,  or  whether  it  arose  incompre- 
hensibly from  within,  we  have  not  the  data  to  determine. 
When  a soul  is  ready  to  take  fire  a very  slight  external 
cause  will  be  sufficient  to  ignite  it — a cause  which  for  any 
incombustible  spirit  would  be  simply  non-existent. 

Probably  to  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries  the  change 
in  the  life  of  Enoch  had  that  look  of  unaccountability 
which  we  call  madness.  It  matters  not  ; the  important 
question  is  not  its  cause,  but  its  nature.  It  is  described  in 
the  narrative  of  Genesis  as  the  transition  into  a new  world, 
a spiritual  world,  a world  incapable  of  being  perceived  by 
the  merely  physical  life  ; for  sixty- five  years  he  had  lived, 
for  the  next  three  hundred  years  he  was  to  walk  with  God. 
He  had  been  iii  union  with  the  region  of  the  five  senses, 
and  he  had  asked  for  nothing  more,  but  now  there  were 
opening  within  him  new  senses  leading  into  other  regions 
— an  eye  that  was  cognisant  of  a light  which  never  shone 
on  land  or  sea,  an  ear  which  caught  the  sound  of  a music 
unutterable  by  earthly  voices,  a heart  which  had  wakened 
into  thoughts  which  the  human  imagination  had  not  con- 
ceived. He  was  beginning  to  seek  for  objects  beyond 
experience,  to  set  his  affections  on  things  above,  to  look 
towards  a life  which  was  unseen  and  eternal.  In  that  hour. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


5 


though  he  knew  it  not,  he  had  entered  upon  the  process  of 
vanquishing  death  ; the  beginning  of  his  translation  was 
the  hour  of  his  walk  with  God. 

II.  Here,  then,  was  a mystery  in  the  life  of  Enoch,  a 
mystery  which  is  repeated  in  every  regenerated  life.  But 
let  us  look  deeper  into  the  narrative  before  us,  and  we  shall 
find,  if  possible,  a still  greater  mystery.  Previous  to  that 
day  on  which  Enoch  became  the  subject  of  a great  spiritual 
revolution  he  had  already  begun  to  discharge  the  ordinary 
ciuties>-of  a householder  ; he  had  become  the  educator  of  a 
family.  When  the  spiritual  change  passes  over  him  we 
expect  to  hear  that  he  has  abandoned  these  commonplace 
cares.  We  expect  to  hear  that,  after  the  manner  of  Eastern 
devotees,  his  walk  with  God  has  become  a desertion  of 
man.  We  look  for  his  translation  out  of  the  world  even 
before  his  death.  When  we  are  told  that  at  a definite 
period  of  life  he  walks  with  God,  or  strikes  out  into  a 
spiritual  pathway,  we  fully  expect  the  sequel  to  be  that  he 
walks  no  more  with  men  and  participates  no  longer  in  the 
ways  of  men  ; that  is  the  sequel  which  Brahmanism,  which 
Buddhism,  which  the  great  mass  of  Eastern  religions 
would  have  deemed  imperative. 

But  this  man  reverses  all  our  expectations.  He  is  not 
of  the  East  Eastern  ; he  is  no  Brahman,  no  Buddhist,  no 
ascetic.  He  goes  up  into  the  life  of  God,  to  walk  in  the 
spiritual  regions,  and  we  expect  to  see  him  vanish  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  but  presently  he  re-appears  in  the  world 
of  men  and  resumes  the  life  of  common  day.  He  ascends 
up  into  the  mountain,  but  it  is  only  to  come  down  again 
into  the  valley  perfumed  with  the  fragrance  of  the  moun- 
tain air.  When  the  great  spiritual  change  first  comes  to 
him  it  finds  him  engaged  in  the  duties  of  a householder  ; 
when  the  great  spiritual  change  is  completed  it  leaves  him 
resuming  those  duties.  The  three  hundred  years  of  his 
walk  with  God  are  years  of  family  life  ; he  brings  up  sons 
and  daughters.  His  life  in  its  outward  aspect  in  no  respect 
differs  from  the  lives  of  those  around  him.  His  walk  with 
God  lies  not  over  a different  road  from  the  common  walk 
with  men  ; the  difference  lies  not  in  the  road  but  in  the 
companionship,  not  in  the  steps  taken  but  in  the  spirit  with 
which  they  are  taken.  Before  he  saw  God  he  had  a sphere 
in  a human  family  ; after  he  saw  God  he  had  still  the  same 


6 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


sphere.  But  it  was  no  longer  the  same  man  that  filled  it, 
and  therefore  it  was  no  longer  filled  in  the  same  way. 

The  walk  with  God  leads  through  the  paths  of  earth  as 
well  as  the  paths  of  heaven,  but  he  who  has  entered  upon 
that  walk  can  no  longer  separate  these  paths  ; the  atmo- 
sphere of  heaven  penetrates  everywhere.  It  does  not 
unsphere  the  lives  of  men  ; it  purifies  the  old  spheres.  It 
makes  better  fathers,  better  sons.  It  makes  the  soldier  a 
more  loyal  soldier,  the  philosopher  a more  true  philosopher, 
the  legislator  a more  just  legislator  ; the  triumph  of  eternity 
is  the  sublimation  of  time.  That  is  the  great  truth  which 
Enoch  was  the  first  to  see,  the  great  truth  which  he  was 
to  make  the  distinctive  principle  of  the  coming  Jewish 
nation.  This  man  standing  at  the  head  of  the  stream  is  at 
once  the  representative  and  the  prophecy  of  that  which 
constitutes  the  genius  of  Judaism. 

That  religion,  almost  alone  amongst  the  faiths  of  the 
East,  maintains  from  beginning  to  end  that  the  sacred  has 
its  province  in  the  secular.  It  is  a protest  against  the 
Brahman,  against  the  Buddhist,  against  the  ascetic  of  every 
age.  In  opposition  to  all  theories  of  mysticism  and  tran- 
scendentalism, it  declares  that  the  earth  is  the  Lord’s,  and 
the  fulness  thereof.  It  claims  for  God  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  and  the  glory  of  them  : every  government  is  His 
government,  every  law  is  His  law,  every  political  institution 
is  an  ordinance  from  Him.  There  is  no  difference  between 
treason  and  impiety ; there  is  no  distinction  between 
anarchy  and  atheism.  God  is  not  only  the  supreme  ruler 
of  the  earth — He  is  the  only  ruler  ; He  is  without  rival  and 
without  second.  Therefore  it  is  that  to  the  Jew,  that  man 
who  had  most  of  the  Divine  life  was  the  man  who  had  the 
best  right  to  fill  the  largest  secular  spheres. 

Of  all  spheres  that  which  he  had  most  right  to  fill 
was  the  circle  of  family  life,  for  the  family  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  kingdom  and  the  kingdom  was  the  reign  of  the 
Theocracy.  The  goal  of  Jewish  religion  was  morality,  and 
the  beginning  of  its  morality  was  the  life  of  home.  The 
essence  of  Jewish  religion  was  a and  the  first  steps 

of  the  walk  were  around  the  domestic  altar.  The  sacred 
fire  which  illuminated  the  saints  of  the  Old  Testament 
burned  not  on  the  mountain-tops  ; it  enshrined  itself  in  the 
valleys  of  their  lives.  It  lighted  up  the  family  circle,  it 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


7 


warmed  up  the  domestic  duties,  it  irradiated  the  sphere  of 
household  commonplaces.  It  is  not  without  significance 
that  when  we  would  describe  in  a single  word  the  greatest 
leaders  of  that  primitive  age  we  call  them  by  the  one 
name  of  patriarch  or  father. 

III.  But  there  is  one  other  point  of  significance  in  this  brief 
narrative  of  Enoch’s  life,  and  a point  in  which,  more  than 
all  others,  he  stands  out  as  a representative  of  his  nation. 
We  have  seen  that  in  him  is  first  revealed  that  great  prin- 
ciple of  Jewish  faith — the  identity  of  religion  with  morality. 
We  have  now  to  see  revealed  in  him  that  other  character- 
istic doctrine  of  his  race — the  connection  between  morality 
and  immortality.  That  connection  is  expressed  in  one 
pregnant  utterance:  ‘‘he  walked  with  God;  and  he  was 
not.”  We  have  nothing  to  do  here  with  that  in  the 
narrative  which  is  miraculous ; we  are  concerned  with 
that  which  is  non-miraculous,  representative,  universal. 
We  wish  to  find  what  is  that  element  in  the  life  of 
Enoch  which  has  constituted  to  posterity  the  fact  of  his 
immortality.  When  we  read  this  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis 
we  seem  to  be  walking  through  a cemetery  perusing  the 
inscriptions  on  the  antediluvian  tombstones.  Each  life 
contains  a common  epitaph — a record  of  birth,  parentage, 
and  length  of  years,  closed  by  the  one  universal  statement, 
“ and  he  died.” 

But  here,  in  the  midst  of  the  cemetery,  there  is  a vacant 
space  where  a tombstone  was  meant  to  be,  and  instead  of 
the  common  inscription  of  death  there  are  found  the  words, 
“ he  was  not,  for  God  took  him.”  He  was  not ; he  never 
became  a thing  of  the  past,  it  always  can  be  written  of  him 
— he  is  : such  was  the  deep  significance  of  the  primitive 
epitaph  on  Enoch.  It  tells  us  that  he  is  not  numbered 
amongst  the  things  that  have  been,  that  he  has  not  passed 
away  with  the  shadows  of  a bygone  time,  that  he  lives  in 
a perpetual  present,  in  an  everlasting  now,  in  an  eternity  of 
immortal  youth ; and  then  it  completes  the  picture  by 
declaring  that  this  immortality  was  to  him  no  accident,  no 
capricious  destiny,  no  arbitrary  fate  ; that  he  received  im- 
munity from  death  just  because  there  was  in  him  that 
which  could  not  die — “he  walked  with  God,  and  he  was 
not.” 

Now  here  is  the  great  truth  which  the  world  in  general 


8 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


has  grasped,  and  which  Judaism  in  particular  has  made  her 
own — the  connection  between  morality  and  immortality. 
To  the  consciousness  of  mankind  the  freshest  and  greenest 
thing  in  this  world  is  the  pure  heart.  It  is  independent 
of  all  time ; it  is  independent  of  all  space.  When  we 
meet  it  on  the  page  of  history  we  refer  it  to  no  age  or 
clime  ; we  accept  it  as  a fact  of  humanity.  The  heroism 
of  moral  purity  is  never  antiquated  ; it  is  always  modern. 
The  men  who  have  walked  through  this  world  by  the 
power  of  faith  are,  even  in  a spiritual  sense,  translated  that 
they  should  not  see  death.  They  are  not  to  us  men  of  the 
past ; we  shake  hands  with  them  across  the  centuries  as  by 
the  bond  of  a present  continuity.  They  never  recede  with 
the  years  ; they  are  as  young  to-day  as  they  were  a thousand 
years  ago.  The  life  which  they  lived  was  not  the  life  of 
their  time  but  the  life  of  humanity.  Their  walk  through 
the  world  was  a walk  with  God,  and  the  walk  with  God 
never  becomes  a beaten  path  ; it  is  perpetually  trodden,  yet 
to  every  soul  that  treads  it  it  is  ever  new.  The  man  who 
treads  that  path  is  abreast  of  every  age ; it  always  can  be 
said  of  him,  he  is  ! 

Here,  then,  is  the  grand  principle  which  Enoch  be- 
queathed to  the  Jewish  nation  and  to  posterity — the  power 
of  morality  to  transcend  the  limits  of  time.  He  taught 
by  his  life,  he  illustrated  by  the  survival  of  his  life,  that  the 
evergreen  element  of  humanity  is  conscience,  that  mar- 
vellous power  which,  call  it  by  what  name  you  will,  issues 
the  categorical  imperative,  “ thou  shalt ; thou  shalt  not.*’ 
The  one  life  amongst  the  antediluvians  which  does  not 
come  to  us  as  an  echo  of  the  past,  is  that  life  which  is  a 
walk  with  God.  Seth,  and  Enos,  and  Cainan  may  have  been 
greater  men  as  the  world  counts  greatness,  and  their  lives 
may  have  been  more  eventful  to  their  day  and  generation, 
but  for  that  very  reason  they  are  less  eventful  to  humanity. 
The  distinctive  merit  of  Enoch  w^eighed  against  his  con- 
temporaries is  the  fact  that  his  life  laid  hold  of  that  which 
belonged  not  to  his  age,  nor  to  any  age,  but  which  consti- 
tuted the  basis  of  human  nature  itself ; by  this,  he  being 
dead  yet  speaketh.  He  bequeathed  to  his  countrymen  a 
revelation  of  the  truth  that  morality  is  man’s  hope  of 
immortality.  Judaism  appropriated  that  lesson,  and  in 
theory  never  swerved  from  it.  Of  a future  state  in  itself 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


9 


she  speaks  little,  and  of  the  nature  of  the  future  existence 
she  does  not  tell.  But  the  one  point  which  this  religion 
grasps  is  the  message  borne  down  to  her  by  the  life  of 
Enoch,  that  the  way  to  escape  death  is  the  walk  with  God. 

“Who  shall  abide  in  His  tabernacle,  who  shall  dwell  in 
His  holy  hill  ? He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a pure 
heart,  who  hath  not  lifted  up  his  soul  unto  vanity  nor 
sworn  deceitfully ; he  that  doeth  thus  shall  never  be 
moved.”  The  one  eternal  object  in  this  world  to  the  heart 
of  the  Jew  was  the  life  of  God  ; the  very  name  of  Jehovah 
means  the  Eternal.  The  one  hope  of  human  immortality 
to  the  heart  of  the  Jew  lay  in  union  with  this  life  of  God  ; 
to  walk  outside  of  Him  was  to  die,  to  walk  with  Him  was 
to  live  for  evermore.  Where  was  the  place  of  the  dead  he 
knew  not  nor  cared  to  inquire ; all  he  knew  was  that  even 
from  that  region  the  Divine  Omnipresence  was  not  ex- 
cluded : “ If  I make  my  bed  in  Hades,  Thou  art  there.” 
The  problem  for  Judaism  was  to  get  near  to  God,  to  touch 
the  secret  of  that  Divine  holiness  in  which  lay  the  Fountain 
of  life.  To  be  holy  as  He  was  holy,  to  be  pure  as  He  was 
pure ; to  meditate  on  His  law  day  and  night ; to  keep  His 
commandments  one  by  one  : that  was  the  sum  of  her  creed, 
that  was  the  substance  of  her  hope.  Her  religion  was  a 
walk  with  God,  and  the  walk  with  God  was  the  road  to 
immortality. 

G.  M. 

II.  Noah.  Heb.  xi.  7.  By  faith  Noah,  being  7varned  of 
God  of  things  not  seen  as  yet,  moved  with  feai‘,  prepared  an  ark 
to  the  saving  of  his  house ; by  the  which  he  condemned  the 
world,  and  became  heir  of  the  righteousness  which  is  by  faith. 

The  great  servants  of  God,  as  a rule,  share  in  a common 
stock  of  thoughts,  feelings,  resolves,  efforts,  sacrifices,  which 
lift  them,  as  a class,  above  the  ordinary  level  of  men,  and 
make  them  what  they  are.  They  live  in  the  world  without 
being  of  it ; they  look  beyond  these  narrow  frontiers  for 
their  ruling  interests  and  their  deepest  motives.  In  some 
shape  or  other,  they  give  up  what  they  see,  for  what  they 
do  not  see  ; they  feel  beforehand  that  life  is  a thing  at  once 
blessed  and  awful  ; blessed  in  its  opportunities,  awful  in  its 
possibilities.  They  act  as  men  who  are  in  possession  of 


lO 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


the  clue  to  its  real  meaning.  They  know  and  feel  why  they 
are  here,  and  whither  they  are  going ; and  in  communion 
with  the  Author  and  end  of  their  existence,  and  in  doing 
His  will,  so  far  as  they  know  it,  by  themselves  and  among 
their  fellow-creatures,  they  realize  the  true  scope  and 
dignity  of  their  being,  and  they  fertilize  the  lives  of  all 
around  them.  “ Blessed  is  the  man  that  hath  not  walked 
in  the  counsel  of  the  ungodly,  nor  stood  in  the  way  of 
sinners,  and  hath  not  sat  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful.  But 
his  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  and  in  His  law  will 
he  exercise  himself  day  and  night.  And  he  shall  be  like  a 
tree  planted  by  the  waterside,  that  will  bring  forth  his  fruit 
in  due  season.  His  leaf  also  shall  not  wither,  and  look, 
whatsoever  he  doeth,  it  shall  prosper.’’  But  over  and  above 
that  which  is  common  to  them  as  a body,  each  am.ong  the 
servants  of  God  has  some  distinguishing  characteristic. 
As  in  nature,  no  two  flowers,  no  two  animals,  no  two 
human  countenances,  are  exactly  alike ; so  in  grace,  this 
reflection  of  God’s  exhaustless  resources  is  even  more 
apparent,  and  each  who  has  a part,  still  more  each  who  is 
eminent  in  the  kingdom  of  grace,  has  in  it  a distinct  place, 
and  form,  and  working,  which  belongs  to  no  other.  His 
character,  or  circumstances,  confer  upon  him  a speciality, 
which  makes  him,  at  least  in  some  respects,  unlike  any  who 
have  preceded  him,  unlike,  we  may  dare  to  add,  any  who 
will  follow  him. 

The  great  patriarchal  figures  who  move  before  us  in  the 
earliest  pages  of  the  Bible  are,  as  a class,  naturally  clouded 
in  the  dimness  of  a remote  antiquity.  Of  the  seven  names 
which  are  contemporary  with  Noah,  one  only  attracts  a 
specific  moral  and  religious  influence.  We  pause  at  the 
holy  life,  at  the  glorious  translation  of  Enoch.  With  this 
exception,  there  is  little  to  arrest  the  attention  beyond  the 
length  of  years  which  was  granted  to  these  earliest  gene- 
rations of  men.  Strange,  almost  inconceivable,  as  such 
longevity  may  appear,  when  we  contrast  it  with  the  exist- 
ing limits  of  human  life,  it  is  in  harmony,  nevertheless,  with 
the  general  scale  of  gigantic  power,  which,  according  to 
the  most  reliable  evidence  relating  to  the  old  world,  was 
characteristic  of  it.  Life  in  that  earliest  age  was  com- 
paratively simple,  regular,  and  free  from  the  social  mischief 
and  wickedness  which  came  along  with  a more  organised 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


11 


society.  The  climate,  the  weather,  and  the  natural  con- 
ditions under  which  mankind  moved,  were  probably  very 
different  from  those  which  succeeded,  and  Paradise  itself 
was  still  recent  So  that  although  in  the  exercise  of  his 
great  prerogative,  man  had  forfeited  the  endowments  with 
which  he  had  been  originally  blessed,  yet  some  of  these, 
such  as  immortality,  would  abate  but  gradually,  and  thus 
it  was  that  Enoch  was  translated  into  eternal  life  with  God, 
without  passing  through  disease  and  death.  Five  genera- 
tions of  ancestors,  at  least,  must  still  have  been  living — 
Jared,  Mahalaleel,  Cainan,  Enos,  and  even  Seth  ; while 
Enoch's  son,  Methuselah,  and  his  grandson,  Lamech,  had 
attained  an  age  far  beyond  that  of  modern  men.  Of  all 
the  antediluvian  life,  from  the  time  of  the  creation,  only 
Adamhad  been  taken  to  his  rest,  only  Noah  was  not  yet 
born.  Sixty-five  years  elapsed  between  the  translation 
of  Enoch  and  the  birth  of  Noah,  and  during  that  interval 
the  moral  atmosphere  of  human  history  had  very  rapidly 
darkened. 

This  result  appears  to  be  due  to  two  main  causes,  beyond 
and  above  the  constantly  self-aggravating  effects  of  the 
Fall.  In  the  fourth  and  fifth  chapters  of  Genesis,  the 
development  of  the  human  race  is  traced  through  two 
entirely  different  lines — that  of  Cain  and  that  of  Seth.  It 
would  seem  that  notwithstanding  the  general  sense  of  the 
phrase  elsewhere  in  Scripture,  the  Sethites,  and  not  any 
beings  of  a higher  world,  are  on  this  occasion  meant  by  the 
august  title,  “Sons  of  God;"  and  an  inter-marriage  between 
the  Sethites,  who  had  preserved  the  higher  and  better  forms 
of  religion,  and  the  Cainites,  who  had  entirely  lost  them, 
issued  in  the  rapid  moral  degradation  of  the  posterity  of 
Seth. 

Distinct  from  this,  but  contemporaneous  with  it,  was  the 
appearance  of  the  giants  ; they  were  tyrants,  it  would 
seem,  physical  natural  monsters — men  who  made  the  law 
of  might  to  be  the  governing  force  in  that  primitive  society. 
The  corruption  of  the  old  world  was  therefore  traceable  to 
two  causes,  each  in  its  way  fatal  to  the  moral  well-being  of 
man.  It  was  traceable  on  the  one  hand  to  social  oppres- 
sion and  cruelty  ; on  the  other  hand  to  a reckless  sensuality. 
Lamech  felt  the  evils  of  his  time  ; it  all  seemed  to  him  to 
flow,  as  it  did  flow,  from  the  sin  which  had  been  brought 


12 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


about,  and  from  the  curse  which  had  been  pronounced  in 
Eden.  He  felt  the  burden  of  his  labour  upon  the  ungrate- 
ful soil ; and  when  his  son  was  born,  we  read  of  the  father’s 
melancholy,  together  with  a profound  presentiment  of 
some  brighter  future,  in  the  name  of  the  infant,  “ and  he 
called  his  name  Noah,  saying.  This  same  shall  comfort  us 
concerning  our  work  and  toil  of  our  hands,  because  of  the 
ground  which  the  Lord  hath  cursed.”  Noah’s  general  and 
lofty  piety  is  described  by  the  same  phrase  as  Enoch’s — 
He  walked  with  God.”  This  expression  denotes  more 
than  that  which  was  used  in  a Divine  manner  of  Abraham. 
Abraham  was  to  walk,  and  did  walk  before  God.  Still 
more  carefully  should  it  be  distinguished  from  walking 
after  God,  the  phrase  by  which  Moses  enjoins  obedience 
to  the  commands  given  in  the  Divine  law.  To  walk  before 
God  is  to  be  ever  conscious  of  His  over-shadowing  and 
searching  presence  ; but  to  walk  with  God,  is  something 
higher  and  more  blessed  even  than  this  ; it  is  to  be,  as  it 
were,  constantly  at  His  side,  and  admitted  to  His  con- 
fidence; it  is  to  be  admitted  to  a close  and  intimate 
communion  with  Him  as  a dear  personal  friend.  It  is  to 
be  in  spirit  what  the  apostles  were  in  flesh,  when  they 
shared  day  by  day  in  the  streets  and  lanes  of  Galilee, 
the  Divine  companionship  of  the  Incarnate  Son.  It  is 
St.  John’s  ‘‘fellowship  with  the  Father  and  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ.”  It  is  St.  Paul’s  “ being  quickened  and  made  to 
sit  together  in  heavenly  places  with  Jesus  Christ.”  Once 
only  besides  does  the  phrase  occur  in  the  Old  Testament, 
where  the  Prophet  Malachi  applies  it,  not  to  the  Israelites 
generally,  but  specifically  and  distinctly  to  the  conduct  of 
the  priests,  considering  that  they  stood  in  a closer  relation 
to  God  than  the  rest  of  the  ancient  people,  and  could 
enter  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  have  intercourse  with  the 
Sacred  Presence  which  was  there  veiled  from  the  public 
eye. 

Noah’s  piety,  then,  was  of  an  exceptionably  lofty  kind  ; 
he  is  said  to  have  been  a religious  man,  and  perfect  in  his 
generation,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  general  corruption  he 
found  favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord.  Of  this  temper  his 
thankfulness  after  his  deliverance  is  a sample  ; in  order  to 
express  it  he  sacrifices  some  of  the  little  store  which  he 
had  saved  from  the  general  wreck,  and  a sentence  in  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


13 


Prophet  Ezekiel  implies  that  he  had  special  power  as  an 
intercessor  with  God.  Yet  his  intercession  is  classed  with 
that  of  Job  and  Daniel,  and  his  thankfulness  was  both  in 
form  and  the  spirit  of  its  manifestation,  an  anticipation  of 
what  is  shown  in  other  instances,  as  that  of  Moses  ; and 
Holy  Scripture,  with  its  wonted  simplicity  and  truthfulness, 
describing  his  falling  in  his  old  age  into  an  error,  does  not 
place  him  in  this  respect  above  the  level  of  other  servants 
of  God.  We  have,  then,  still  to  ask,  what  it  was  wherein 
Noah’s  excellence  more  particularly  shows  itself.  And 
this  question  is  answered  in  the  passage  we  are  considering, 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which,  omitting  all  else — 
and  there  is  rnuch  which  the  history  of  this  great  patriarch 
suggests — bids  us  observe,  that  “By  faith  Noah,  being 
warned  of  God  of  things  not  seen  as  yet,  moved  with  fear, 
prepared  an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  house ; by  the  which 
he  condemned  the  world,  and  became  heir  of  the  righteous- 
ness which  is  by  faith.” 

Indeed,  it  is  to  this  period  in  the  life  of  Noah  that  all 
the  allusions  to  him  in  the  New  Testament,  with  the  one 
exception  of  that  of  our  Lord  in  St.  Luke’s  Gospel,  con- 
sistently refer.  In  the  mind  not  only  of  St.  Peter,  but  of 
our  Lord  himself,  the  “ days  of  Noah  ” were  specially  that 
most  critical  period  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 
which  preceded  the  deluge.  It  is  possible  that  the  social 
or  political  interests  of  his  life  may  have  been  greater  at 
an  earlier  or  at  later  periods,  it  is  certain  that  the  intensity 
of  its  moral  interest  centred  in  this. 

In  Noah’s  building  the  ark  at  the  command  of  God,  there 
are  three  main  points  to  be  considered.  It  implies,  first 
of  all,  that  he  had  an  earnest  conviction  of  the  sanctity 
and  greatness  of  moral  truth — a conviction  which,  more 
than  any  other,  is  the  basis  of  religious  character.  He  was 
surrounded  by  a populace  which  had  broken  altogether 
away  from  the  laws  of  God.  Impiety,  impurity,  and 
licentiousness,  were  the  order  of  the  day.  Every  imagina- 
tion of  the  thoughts  of  man’s  heart  was  only  evil  con- 
tinually; the  corruption  was  universal  and  profound.  To 
numbers  of  men,  this  surrounding  atmosphere  of  evil 
would  be  simply  destructive  to  the  moral  sight.  Those  of 
us  who  know  anything  of  our  own  hearts  and  characters 
must  know  this  how  easily  we  get  accustomed  to  the  sight 


14  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


of  what  is  wrong — how  soon  we  feel  complacency,  or 
something  like  complacency,  towards  it — how  it  under- 
mines our  sense  of  its  own  malignity,  and  makes  us,  if  not 
exactly  its  captives,  yet  its  tolerant  apologists.  “ Neither 
did  they  abhor  anything  that  is  evil,’'  is  a severe  and 
exceptional  condemnation  by  the  psalmist.  It  is  not  that 
evil  triumphant,  as  in  Babylon,  crushes  out  the  remaining 
righteousness  in  the  land  ; there  it  is,  and  we  take  it  for 
granted  in  ourselves  and  others ; it  is  part  of  the  actual 
sum  of  human  life  and  activity — nay,  it  is  a very  large 
part;  in  our  hearts,  too,  it  finds  something  like  countenance 
and  sympathy.  What  is  the  good,  we  say  to  ourselves,  of 
finding  fault  with  the  weather,  or  with  an  epidemic  ? We 
may  wish  that  things  were  otherwise ; we  cannot  but  resign 
ourselves  to  take  them  as  they  are,  and  this  acquiescence 
in  evil,  as  inevitable,  involves  a something  beyond  ; it  leads 
us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  what  the  deepest  and  truest  of  all 
human  presentiment,  apart  from  the  revelation  of  God, 
points  to  as  its  certain  consequences.  It  blinds  us  to  the 
fact  that  it  must  be  followed,  at  some  time  or  other,  by 
punishment.  Could  it  be  otherwise,  God  would  not  be 
God,  a necessarily  and  intrinsically  Moral  Being.  Could 
it  be  otherwise,  the  first  and  most  earnest  forms  of  belief 
in  conscience  would  be  untrustworthy.  And  yet  we  may 
by  familiarity  with  this  indolent  sympathy  with  evil,  learn 
first  to  forget  that  evil  leads  to  punishment,  and  next,  and 
not  improbably,  even  to  deny  it.  It  is  inconceivable,  we 
say,  that  a world-embracing  mass  of  evil  should  be 
punished  : its  very  universality  is  its  safe-guard  and  its 
protection  ; it  might  be  punished  if  it  were  an  exception,  it 
must  escape  simply  because  it  is  the  rule.  This  is  what  we 
secretly  say  to  ourselves.  We  shut  our  eyes  to  a first  truth 
of  morals,  and  we  flatter  ourselves  that  we  naturally  escape 
the  effects. 

It  was  against  this  tacit  and  fatal  influence  of  a corrupt 
moral  atmosphere  that  Noah’s  life  was  a protest  of  resist- 
ance. He  was,”  the  Bible  says,  “ perfect  in  ” or  among 
‘‘  his  generations,”  and  these  generations  were  corrupt. 
He  was  a preacher  of  righteousness  when  righteousness 
was  at  a discount  and  peculiarly  unpopular.  He  walked 
with  God  when  mankind  at  large  had  forgotten  Him.  He 
did  not  think  the  better  of  evil,  of  its  real  nature  or  of  its 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


15 


future  prospects,  merely  because  it  was  practised  on  a 
large  scale  and  with  considerable  apparent  impunity.  To 
Noah,  the  eternal  truths  were  more  certain  than  the  surface 
appearances  of  life  ; he  was  certain  that  evil  was  evil,  and 
that  it  could  not  but  be  followed  by  chastisement,  because 
God  was  God. 

Such  a moral  conviction  it  must  have  been  which  fitted 
Noah  to  receive  the  Divine  prediction  of  a coming  deluge. 
God  does  not  take  the  morally  deaf  and  blind  into  His 
confidence.  The  words  of  Jesus  Christ  sound  through  all 
the  ages  of  human  history  as  the  voice  of  a Divine  and 
presiding  Providence  : ‘‘  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him 
hear,*'  he  whose  moral  senses  are  really  alive,  let  him  listen 
to  the  proclamations  of  God’s  truth.  To  those  only  it  will 
be  made  known.  He  that  willeth  to  do  the  will  of  God, 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God.”  . . . 

Noah  was  warned  of  God  of  things  not  seen  as  yet ; he  was 
the  subject  in  some  way — it  were  folly  to  attempt  to  deter- 
mine in  what  way — of  supernatural  communications  ; it 
may  have  been  some  sensible  voice  from  without,  it  may 
have  been  an  unmistakably  Divine  operation,  when  God 
said  unto  Noah,  ‘‘The  end  of  all  flesh  is  come  before  Me  ; 
for  the  earth  is  filled  with  violence  through  them ; behold  I 
will  destroy  them  with  the  earth.  Make  thee  an  ark  of 
gopher  wood.  . . . Behold  I,  even  I,  do  bring  a flood  of 
waters  upon  the  earth,  to  destroy  all  flesh,  wherein  is  the 
breath  of  life  from  under  heaven;  and  every  thing  that  is  in 
the  earth  shall  die.  But  with  thee  will  I establish  My  cove- 
nant.” Why  should  Noah  believe  this  prediction  sufficiently 
to  act  upon  that  command?  Because  God  had  spoken;  that 
was  his  reason,  that  was  his  conviction, — it  was  enough  for 
him,  he  needed  no  more.  But  then  his  conviction  of  the  un- 
changeableness of  that  truth,  and  of  the  moral  laws  of  God, 
would  have  rendered  such  an  announcement,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, to  him  at  least  morally  intelligible.  It  was  true 
that  what  was  foretold,  was  to  come  unprovided  by  any 
past  experience.  In  the  burning  plains  of  central  Asia, 
the  idea  of  an  universal  deluge  may  well  have  seemed  the 
wildest  of  imaginations.  A thousand  years,  at  least,  had 
already  passed,  and  there  had  been  nothing  like  it.  Nature 
seemed  to  be  unvarying  in  her  movements,  the  sun  rose 
and  set,  the  seasons  succeeded  each  other,  the  generations 


i6 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


of  living  beings  appeared  and  passed  away  ; there  was  a 
limit,  so  to  call  it,  a regular  period  traversing  this  in  a 
discernible  and  provided  order,  but  as  yet  there  was 
nothing  that  met  the  sense  to  warrant  the  expectation  of 
a vast  or  overwhelming  shock  or  catastrophe.  Why  should 
it  be  otherwise  hereafter  ? why  should  this  accumulated 
experience  go  for  nothing  ? why  should  this  sense  of 
security,  so  amply  warranted,  be  succeeded  by  appre- 
hensions and  distrust,  for  which,  as  yet,  the  annals  of  the 
world  afforded  no  parallel  ? The  answer  was,  that  God 
had  spoken.  Who  that  believes  in  a real  living  God  can 
plead  observation  in  the  divinity  of  nature  against  the 
avowed  will  of  the  Author  of  nature?  After  all,  this  in- 
variability, so  to  call  it,  appeals  rather  to  the  imagination 
than  to  the  reason  ; the  imagination  becomes  so  accustomed 
to  it,  so  moulded  by  it,  that  it  undergoes  a certain  distress 
at  the  very  thought  of  its  violent  interruption  ; but  reason, 
true  reason,  is  ever  mindful  of  the  limits  which  must’ bound 
even  our  widest  observations.  Because  we  observe  a con- 
tinuous sequence  of  similar  effects,  it  does  not  follow  as 
an  absolute  certainty  ; it  at  most  amounts  to  a very  strong 
presumption,  strong  in  proportion  to  the  range  of  our 
observation,  that  these  effects  will  continue.  We  are  not 
really  in  possession  of  knowledge  respecting  any  great 
necessity  rooted  in  the  nature  of  things,  which  makes  it 
certain  they  must  continue ; and  if  we  believe  that  the 
Almighty  Author  of  nature  is  really  alive,  and  that  He  is 
a Moral  Being — and  not  merely  an  intelligence,  still  less 
merely  a force — and  that  as  a moral  being  He  may  have 
grave  reasons  for  disturbing  altogether  this  physical  and 
social  sympathy  which  encircles  us,  we  shall  not  then  dis- 
trust Him  if  He  tells  us  that  He  means  to  do  so.  And  so 
it  was  that  Noah  was  moved,  as  the  apostle  says,  with  fear, 
with  a fear  most  reasonable,  as  it  was  judicious  ; he  did 
not  treat  the  warning  he  had  received  as  if  it  had  been 
only  some  evil  omen,  appealing  at  best  to  his  superstition, 
but  he  prepared  an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  house. 

This  event,  in  which  Noah  believed  before  it  came,  was 
appealed  to  in  a later  age  by  St.  Peter,  as  furnishing  a 
reason  for  believing  in  a still,  to  us,  future  and  greater 
catastrophe.  St.  Peter  is  writing  at  the  very  close  of  his 
life,  and  already  a sufficient  time  had  elapsed  since  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


17 


Ascension  of  our  Lord  to  allow  for  the  foundation  of 
systematic  doubts  respecting  His  second  coming  to  judg- 
ment ; doubts  which  were  based  upon  the  apparent  endur- 
ability of  the  world  and  of  the  laws  of  life.  Where  is  the 
promise  of  God’s  coming?  men  asked  in  that  generation, 
too  ; all  things  continue  as  they  were  from  the  beginning 
of  the  creation.  The  apostle  reminds  those  who  argue  thus, 
that  Time  has  no  meaning  for  the  eternal  God,  and  that 
to  apply  pur  notions  of  the  difference  between  greater  and 
lesser  portions  of  it  to  His  Majestic  providences,  is  to  for- 
get that  there  is  simply  no  such  thing  as  succession  in  His 
unbegun,  unending  life.  ‘‘  Beloved,  be  not  ignorant  of  this 
one  thing— that  one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a thousand 
years,  and  a thousand  years  as  one  day.” 

But  if  Christ’s  delay  meant  nothing  but  His  long-suffer- 
ing, the  unchanging  order  of  the  world  could  not  be  urged 
as  a reason  for  this  unbelief  in  the  catastrophe  of  a future 
judgment,  because  the  past  history  of  the  world  contained 
at  least  one  eminent  example  of  such  a catastrophe.  “ By 
the  word  of  the  Lord  the  heavens  were  opened,  the  earth 
standing  out  of  the  water  and  in  the  water,  whereby  the  world 
that  then  was,  being  overflowed  with  water,  perished.”  In 
other  words,  water  had  been  the  instrument  by  which  the 
surface  of  the  earth  was  moulded  ; water  had  been  one  of 
the  constituent  elements  of  its  well-being  and  productive- 
ness, yet  at  the  creative  word  of  God,  from  being  a servant 
and  blessing,  it  became  an  over-mastering  force  and 
scourge ; and  what  had  been,  might  yet,  would  yet,  be. 
Another  element  had  yet  a work  to  do  in  God’s  Provi- 
dence, and  neither  the  lapse  of  years  nor  yet  the  observed 
regularity  of  nature  were  any  real  reasons  for  presuming 
that  a final  catastrophe  would  not  come  at  last.  “ The 
heavens  and  the  earth,  which  are  now,”  says  the  apostle, 
“ by  the  same  word  are  kept  in  store,  reserved  unto  fire 
against  the  judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly  men.” 

Nay,  it  is  very  possible  that  with  a higher  knowledge 
than  that  which  we  at  present  possess,  we  might  be  able 
to  extend  the  argument  by  additional  illustrations. 

Some  years  ago  it  was  usual  to  refer  wholly  to  the  time 
of  the  Deluge  the  more  ancient  animal  remains  which  had 
been  discovered  in  caverns  or  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  but  more  recent  science  urges  that  these  remains 

c 


i8  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


simply  imply,  at  least  generally,  a higher  antiquity,  and 
are  found  under  circumstances  for  which  no  universal 
flood  would  sufficiently  account.  It  may  be  so.  But  is 
there  anything  in  the  text  of  the  Bible  which  obliges  us 
to  narrow  down  to  6,000  years,  or  in  any  way  whatever 
distinguish  the  measure  of  the  earths  antiquity,  short  of 
admitting  its  absolute  eternity?  On  the  contrary,  between 
the  original  creative  Act  and  the  description  of  that 
gradual  process,  by  which  through  successive  periods 
{days  they  are  called  in  the  eastern  idiom)  this  world  was 
brought  into  its  present  state,  there  is  room  for  a measure- 
less interval,  I should  rather  say  for  a series  of  intervals  ; 
and  if  this  be  so,  who  shall  say  that  many  of  the  animal, 
it  may  be  some  of  the  apparently  human,  remains,  which 
are  now  pointed  at  as  hostile  to,  or  at  least  as  damaging 
to,  the  faith  of  Christians,  are  after  all  only  relics  and  re- 
cords of  bygone  catastrophes  of  which,  previous  to  the 
creation  and  present  order  of  things,  this  globe  has 
been  the  scene,  and  by  which  the  ages  of  probation  ac- 
credited to  moral  beings  who  have  pieceded  us  here, 
were  by  the  judgment  of  the  great  Moral  Ruler  violently 
closed. 

It  is  true  that  we  are  here  altogether  in  a region  of 
hypothesis,  but  I submit  that  there  is  at  least  nothing  in 
Revelation  which  necessarily  contradicts  it ; while  if  it  be 
true,  it  yields  support  to  the  argument  of  the  apostle,  it 
justifies  the  generous  faith  of  the  patriarch.  Not  that 
Noah’s  faith  had  anything  to  do  with  such  speculations  ; 
religious  men  may  be  glad  to  harmonize  their  convictions 
with  the  advancing  and  often  inconsistent  conclusions  of 
human  knowledge,  but  the  foundation  of  their  faith  is  one 
and  invariable  ; they  believe  that  He  who  made  the  world 
can  control  it,  and  when  His  purpose  is  clear  to  them,  they 
do  not  allow  themselves  to  lose  sight  of  it  simply  because 
their  imaginations  are  powerfully  impressed  by  the  spec- 
tacle of  a settled  and  common  order  of  continuance  or 
execution.  They  are,  therefore,  in  their  deepest  sympa- 
thies independent  of  scientific  arguments,  without  being  at 
all  indifferent  to  them  ; they  walk  by  faith  and  not  by 
sight ; they  are  certain  that  whatever  difficulties  may  be 
urged  against  God’s  declared  will  at  the  moment,  God  will, 
in  the  long  run,  justify  Himself  to  men,  and  will  vindicate 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


19 


the  wisdom  of  those  who  in  days  of  trial  or  darkness  have 
taken  Him  at  His  word. 

A third  point  to  be  observed  in  Noah  is  his  persever- 
ance under  difficulties.  His  faith  was  a practical  principle, 
and  it  upheld  him  in  the  face  of  serious  discouragements. 
He  might  have  easily  persuaded  himself  that  there  could 
be  no  real  necessity  for  his  personally  exerting  himself ; 
that  the  threatened  disorder  would  scarcely  touch  one  who 
was  already  480  years  of  age  ; that  it  would  be  enough  to 
warn  his  children  of  what  was  coming,  when  he  himself 
would  probably  have  been  laid  in  his  rest.  Why  should 
he  arouse  himself  in  such  advanced  life  to  so  great  an 
effort  as  that  required  of  him,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  be 
undertaken  by  younger  hands  ? The  answer  in  his  con- 
science was,  that  it  had  been  said  to  him,  ‘‘  Build  thee  an 
ark  of  gopher  wood.’' 

Again,  he  might  naturally  have  dwelt  upon  the  great 
mechanical  and  constructive  difficulties  of  such  an  under- 
taking. It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  these  were  left  to 
be  found  out  for  the  first  time  by  modern  criticism.  How 
could  such  an  ark  be  built  so  as  to  secure  at  once  sufficient 
space  and  safety?  How  could  it  be  provisioned,  lighted, 
and  worked  ? How  could  the  several  representatives  of 
the  animal  races  be  so  gathered  as  to  enter  it  ? How 
would  it  be  possible  to  preserve  them  under  conditions  of 
weather  and  temperature  so  unlike  their  own  ? And  when 
the  scourge  had  passed,  how  would  it  be  possible  to  enter 
again  upon  the  earth  as  solitary  colonists,  amid  traces  of 
so  gigantic  a desolation  ? Well  may  Noah’s  heart  have 
sunk  within  him  when  God  said  to  him,  “ Build  thee  an 
ark  of  gopher  wood,”  yet  he  only  lived  to  obey.  More- 
over, Noah  had  to  begin  his  work  and  to  continue  it,  not 
merely  without  active  support  and  sympathy,  but  under 
the  eye  of  public  opinion  which  was  not  so  much  hostile 
as  contemptuously  cynical. 

What  was  this  extraordinary  outlay  of  labour  and  skill 
for  ? what  was  its  purpose  and  meaning  ? How  was  it 
other  than  the  crotchet  of  a mere  visionary  fanatic  ? Did 
he  really  think  that  his  fancies  would  become  true,  and 
that  the  settled  order  of  nature,  as  well  as  the  civilization 
and  progress  of  human  life,  were  going  to  be  buried  be- 
neath the  flood  which  he  dreamt  of?  Was  every  one  else 


20 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


wrong,  while  he  was  right  ? Was  his  private  opinion  to 
be  weighed  against  the  collective  experience  and  judgment 
of  mankind  ? How  they  must  have  mocked  at  the  entire 
undertaking,  how  they  must  in  their  aversion  to  the  awful 
idea  have  revenged  themselves  upon  its  form  and  details  ! 
What  airy  criticism  must  have  been  lavished  upon  it,  and 
on  each  detail  supplied  to  it,  and  on  its  complete  structure 
what  bitter  comments  must  have  been  passed.  Its  useless- 
ness, its  ugliness,  its  utter  opposition  to  the  whole  current 
of  contemporary  thought  and  feeling.  How,  too,  to  some 
of  the  more  liberal  critics  would  it  have  occurred  to  en- 
deavour, as  if  in  scornful  and  condescending  pity,  to  enter, 
although  only  remotely  and  for  a moment,  into  the  strange 
hallucination  that  could  have  produced  it,  as  if  surveying 
from  afar  some  mental  curiosity,  which  only  did  not  move 
anger  because  it  ministered  so  largely  to  amusement. 
And  then  with  what  satisfaction,  complacence,  and  confi- 
dence would  they  have  betaken  themselves  anew  to  the 
life  against  which  this  ark  was  a protest  and  a warning,  as 
to  that  which  was  warranted  by  the  common  sense  and 
judgment  of  the  time,  and  by  a force  of  custom  and  of 
sentiment,  which,  as  the  world  grew  older,  was  daily  gain- 
ing new  strength. 

Our  Lord  Himself  has  said  that  what  took  place  then 
is  an  anticipation  of  what  will  be  on  the  eve  of  the  last 
judgment.  “As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noe,  so  shall  it  be 
also  in  the  days  of  the  Son  of  man.  They  did  eat,  they 
drank,  they  married  wives,  they  were  given  in  marriage, 
until  the  day  that  Noe  entered  into  the  ark,  and  the  flood 
came,  and  destroyed  them  all.''  Yet  there  was  delay,  a delay 
of  120  years,  but  the  threatened  judgment  came  at  last, 
“ the  flood  came,  and  destroyed  them  all."  Whether  it  was 
a strictly  universal  or  something  less  than  a literally  uni- 
versal deluge  ; whether  it  covered  Ararat  without  covering, 
for  instance,  the  Himalayas  ; whether  it  can  be  possibly 
explained  by  any  combination  of  known  causes  or  only  by 
simply  natural  ones — these  are  most  important  questions, 
but  they  do  not  touch  the  broad  limits  of  the  general  fact, 
still  less  the  moral  interests  of  the  narrative  ; they  would 
only  lead  us  away  from  it.  What  is  important  is,  that  the 
judgment  came — it  came  to  vindicate  the  morality  and 
sovereignty  of  God  ; it  came  to  justify  Noah,  and  to  con- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


21 


tend  with  the  generations  which  rejected  him  ; it  came  to 
demonstrate  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  the  ancient  civi- 
lization, the  uncertainty  of  that  nature  which  seemed  at 
the  time  so  well  founded  and  so  strong.  There  must  have 
been  upon  that  day  a murmur — an  outburst  of  surprise 
and  alarm — a struggle — an  agony — a despair — when  this 
was  realized.  Poets  and  painters  have  endeavoured  to 
portray  it,  but  as  the  mind  dwells  on  any  guch  vast  pic- 
ture of  human  agony,  the  heart  grows  sick  and  the  head 
giddy.  In  that  very  multitude,  no  doubt,  there  were  de- 
grees of  responsibility  and  guilt,  knowm  to  and  weighed 
by  the  Eternal  Justice.  The  apostle  hints  as,  much  in  the 
significant  expression  which  apparently  implies,  that  on 
the  descent  of  our  Lord’s  human  soul  into  the  place  of 
the  departed,  there  was  a preaching,  at  least,  to  some 
of  the  repentant  spirits  of  the  antediluvian  world.  But 
the  general  result  is  a contrast  between  an  overwhelming 
judgment  and  a signal  mercy— a judgment  provoked  by 
forgetfulness  of  the  given  law  and  knowledge  of  God — a 
mercy  awarded  to  faith  in  His  word — a faith  which  was 
not  sacrificed  to  false  and  narrow  views  of  duty,  or  to 
base  misgivings,  or  to  the  current  and  corrupting  opinions 
of  the  time.  What  Noah's  work  really  and  mainly  fore- 
shadowed would  have  been  obscured  in  /its  day,  but  we 
Christians  look  back  upon  it  from  a vantage  ground,  which 
enables  us  to  do  it  justice.  We  see  that  in  the  labour  and 
temporal  salvation  of  Noah,  there  is  already  the  shadow  of 
a greater  toil  and  a more  complete  deliverance.  Looking 
to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  may  we  not,  in  its  wretchedne.ss 
and  yet  in  its  hope,  use  in  a true  sense  the  word  of 
Lamech,  This  same  shall  comfort  us  concerning  our 
work  and  toil  of  our  hands."  Like  Noah,  Jesus  Christ 
was  a preacher  of  righteousness — the  preacher  of  a higher 
and  brighter  righteousness  than  man  knew  before.  And 
as  Noah  built  an  ark  for  the  saving  of  his  house,  so  did 
our  Lord  build  His  Church  to  be  the  home  of  His  fol- 
lowers, with  the  promise  that  against  it  the  gates  of  hell 
should  not  prevail. 

His  teaching,  His  example.  His  works  of  mercy.  His 
bitter  death.  His  resurrection  from  the  tomb,  and  His 
glorious  ascension  into  heaven,  all  are  steps  in  this  mighty 
work.  The  Divine  Architect  shed  His  very  life-blood  in 


22  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


the  labour  of  construction,  and  at  length  Pentecost  came, 
and  the  eternal  Spirit  welded  all  into  a consistent  and 
enduring  whole ; and  as  the  races  and  sexes  and  degrees 
of  men  passed  within  it,  one  after  another,  at  the  heavenly 
call,  lo ! there  was  to  the  eyes  of  faith  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  neither  male  nor  female,  circumcision  nor  uncir- 
cumcision, barbarian  nor  Scythian,  bond  nor  free,  but 
Christ  was  all  and  in  all.  And  although  since  those  earlier 
days,  the  passions  and  the  errors  of  men  have  raised  walls 
and  partitions  over  and  above  the  divinely-ordained  stories 
within  the  Divine  fabric,  yet  this  most  assuredly  will  not 
always  last ; they  are  but  human,  while  the  ark  itself  is 
Divine.  Even  now,  too,  it  floats  upon  the  waters,  upon  the 
vast  ocean  of  human  opinion  and  society,  and  we,  without 
any  merit  of  our  own,  but  by  His  free  grace  and  mercy, 
have  been  permitted  to  enter  it.  Over  us,  too,  once  was 
uttered  the  prayer  that  the  everlasting  God,  who  by  His 
great  mercy  did  save  Noah  and  his  family  in  the  ark  from 
perishing  by  water,  would  look  upon  and  sanctify  us,  that, 
being  delivered  from  His  wrath,  we  might  be  received  into 
the  ark  of  Christ’s  Church,  and,  being  steadfast  in  faith, 
joyful  through  hope,  and  rooted  in  charity,  might  so  pass 
through  the  waves  of  this  troublesome  world,  that  in  the 
end  we  might  come  to  the  land  of  everlasting  life. 

It  would  be  useful  to  insist,  before  we  end,  upon  one  or 
two  practical  conclusions  which  are  suggested  by  the  life 
and  work  of  Noah.  It  suggests,  first  of  all,  a particular 
form  of  duty  which  at  certain  times  of  the  world’s  history 
may  press  very  heavily  on  the  consciences  of  public  men, 
whether  in  Church  or  State,  and  at  certain  terms  in  life 
upon  all  of  us,  however  retired  and  private  our  place  and 
work  may  be — I mean,  the  duty  which  may  arise  on  our 
seeing,  or  believing  that  we  see,  more  or  less  clearly  into 
the  future,  which  has  to  be  provided  for  or  provided 
against.  Indeed,  to  endeavour  to  look  forward,  or  to 
provide  in  this  way,  is  a part  of  the  work  of  those  who  are 
charged  with  the  maintenance  and  support  of  large  public 
interests  ; it  is  their  business  to  observe  the  direction  in 
which  things  are  moving,  the  forces  which  are  coming  to 
the  front,  the  combination  or  separation  of  force  which 
may  fairly  be  anticipated,  the  general  result  that  will 
apparently  emerge  from  and  succeed  the  state  of  things 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


23 


with  which  they  are  actually  conversant  Here,  as  else- 
where, to  seek  knowledge  is  more  or  less  to  learn  ; and 
God  teaches  us  through  our  natural  powers  of  observation 
and  reflection,  as  well  as  in  other  and  higher  ways.  The 
prayer  to  know  enough  to  be  able  to  do  His  will,  in  our 
day  and  generation  is  answered.  And  it  may  be  we  have 
to  deliberately  anticipate  very  much,  to  which  we  would 
be  willingly  blind.  Such  a habit  of  looking  forward,  if  its 
motive  is  something  higher  than  mere  speculative  curiosity, 
will  not  interfere  with  the  duties  of  the  present  hour,  nor 
will  it  militate  against  that  general  temper  of  trustful 
resignation,  which  those  who  see  furthest  and  deepest  feel, 
and  which  is  ever  ready  to  leave  its  hopes  and  fears  in  the 
hands  of  God. 

In  private  and  worldly  concerns,  such  foresightedness  is 
not  often  undervalued.  No  man,  for  instance,  continues 
to  invest  his  money  in  an  undertaking,  recommended 
though  it  be  by  an  imposing  prospectus  and  an  influential 
Board  of  Directors,  if  beneath  its  fair  promises  and  ap- 
parent prosperity,  he  can  clearly  see  at  work  the  causes  of 
a coming  bankruptcy.  But  where  the  interests  of  others 
are  only  or  chiefly  concerned,  it  may  be  probable  that  the 
man  himself  will  have  passed  away  before  his  anticipations 
are  realized ; it  is  possible  for  him  to  find  himself  in 
Noah’s  moral  position,  to  this  extent,  that  he  foresees  a 
catastrophe  which  is  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  his  con- 
temporaries, and  which  imposes  on  him  the  plain  duty  of 
preparing  to  meet  it.  And  then  comes  the  trial ; will 
he  bestir  himself  to  obey  the  behest  of  his  conviction,  or 
will  he  indolently  fold  his  hands  and  let  things  take  their 
course.^  Will  he  say  to  himself,  ‘‘After  all,  this  is  no 
particular  concern  of  mine,  it  is  the  concern  of  everybody  ; 
why  should  I in  particular  be  compelled  to  put  myself  out 
of  my  way  in  a matter  which  interests  hundreds  of  other 
people  quite  as  much  as  it  interests  me?  Why  should  I 
be  taxed, — heavily  taxed, — on  the  score  of  my  far-sighted- 
ness, while  others  can  go  on  easily  and  quietly,  with  a 
perfectly  good  conscience,  only  because  they  are  too  un- 
observant to  see,  or  to  try  to  see,  beyond  the  next  turn  in 
the  road  of  life  } I will  let  things  take  their  course  ; there 
is  no  necessity  on  my  part  for  an  interference  which  will 
be  mocked  at  till  it  is  justified,  and  then,  even  when  It  is 


24 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


justified,  will  soon  enough  be  forgotten.’’  Will  he  reason 
thus,  or  will  he  reflect  that  knowledge,  insight,  far-sighted- 
ness, if  they  really  exist,  and  are  known  to  exist,  constitute 
responsibility ; that  he  who  as  a man  sees  further  and 
knows  more  than  others,  cannot  merely  be  as  others  before 
his  fellow-men  or  before  God  ; that  together  with  know- 
ledge, at  least  of  this  kind,  there  comes,  to  a certain  extent, 
the  forfeiture  of  that  particular  species  of  liberty  which  is 
the  moral  bound  of  ignorance } Will  he  reason  thus,  and 
act  upon  his  reason  ? 

My  brethren,  this  is  a most  critical  question — possibly 
for  the  generation,  for  the  country,  for  the  Church  to 
which  he  belongs,  but  certainly,  under  any  circumstances, 
for  himself.  Can  any  one  who  has  a heart  at  all,  think 
without  true  sorrow  of  that  king  of  France  whose  reign 
covers  the  greater  part  of  the  last  century,  who  spans 
the  interval  which  connects  the  great  monarch  with  the 
Bourbon  who  died  upon  the  scaffold.  Few  things  in 
history  are  more  piteous  than  the  contrast  of  the  youth  of 
much  interest  and  promise,  and  the  advanced  life  of  abject 
dissipation.  Yet  Louis  XV.  was  not  wanting  in  penetra- 
tion. Even  the  gay  revelries  of  Versailles  did  not  wholly 
blind  him  to  sights  and  sounds  which  might  have  con- 
vinced a less  observant  ruler,  that  the  foundations  of  the 
great  depth  of  national  life  were  surely  breaking  up,  and 
that  a new  order  of  things  was  imminent.  Allowing  for 
the  difficulties  of  a traditional  position  such  as  his,  may  we 
not  believe  that  an  earnest  and  well-considered  effort  to 
improve  the  condition,  and  to  assert  the  rights  of  the  lower 
classes  of  the  French  people  in  the  middle  of  the  century, 
might  have  saved  France  from  the  torrents  of  blood  in 
which  the  inevitable  revolution  was  baptized.  Yet  Louis 
the  Fifteenth  passed  away  his  time  morally  and  physically 
in  pleasures,  which  ministered  only  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  hour,  while  the  mutterings  of  the  approaching  storm 
were  falling  thick  upon  his  dying  ear,  and  his  last  and 
deepest  conviction  found  expression  in  words,  which  were 
too  surely  to  be  fulfilled : ‘‘After  us,  the  deluge.” 

H.  P.  L. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


25 


III.  Ab  rah  am.  Gen.  xxv.  7,  8.  these  are  the  days  of 

the  years  of  Abraham's  life  which  he  lived,  a7i  hundred  three- 
score and  fifteen  years.  Then  Abraham  gave  up  the  ghost,  and 
died  in  a good  old  age,  an  old  man,  and  full  of  years  ; and  was 
gathered  to  his  people, 

The  epitaph  which  the  writer  of  Genesis  inscribes  upon 
the  tomb  of  Abraham  is  this  : An  old  man  and  full — we 
translate  “full  of  years/'  but  the  addition  weakens  the  sense 
of  the  inscription  ; the  idea  is  not  that  of  duration,  but  of 
ripeness.  The  truth  is,  that  when  we  read  this  epitaph,  we 
are  made  powerfully  conscious  of  the  fact  that  there  has 
come  into  the  world  a new  standard  for  the  measurement 
of  human  life.  Formerly  the  only  standard  had  been  that 
of  extent  or  duration.  Yet,  measured  by  such  a test,  the 
life  of  Abraham  was  not  long,  and  did  not  nearly  reach  to 
the  days  of  his  forefathers  ; one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
years  comprised  the  whole  term  of  his  earthly  history. 
Nevertheless,  the  writer  of  Genesis  has  no  diffidence  in 
inscribing  upon  his  grave  the  words,  an  old  man,  and  he 
hastens  to  add  the  reason  why  he  has  no  diffidence ; he 
declares  that  Abraham's  life  was  long  because  it  was  full. 
He  was  an  old  man,  not  because  his  life  was  extensive,  but 
because  it  was  intensive ; not  because  it  had  many  years, 
but  because,  within  its  comparatively  few  years,  there  were 
compressed  large  experiences.  And  this  itself  shows  that 
in  the  view  of  that  age  there  was  already  rising  a new 
standard  of  the  value  of  human  existence.  Enoch,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  a short  biography,  but  in  his  case  the 
brevity  of  the  earthly  life  is  compensated  by  an  exemption 
from  the  common  law  of  mortality.  In  Abraham's  case 
there  is  no  such  exemption,  but  we  feel  instinctively  that 
it  is  not  needed.  We  feel  that  no  compensation  is  required 
for  the  brevity  of  his  earthly  years,  for  although  few,  they 
are  already  full.  The  shortness  of  the  outward  duration 
is  compensated  now  and  here  by  the  intensity  of  every 
moment's  experience.  We  see  that  the  man  is  receiving 
a double  portion  of  life  in  every  instant  of  time.  There 
are  moments  which  seem  to  concentrate  the  value  of  years  ; 
one  year  of  grief  has  silvered  the  hair  and  bowed  the 
manly  form.  There  are  lives  which  come  to  maturity  long 
before  they  have  reached  that  conventional  term  of  years 
which  men  call  the  coming  of  age.  It  is  with  such  lives  as 


26 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


with  some  American  prairies,  which  at  nightfall  are  colour- 
less wastes  and  at  morning  are  filled  with  beautiful  wild 
flowers  ; they  have  sprung  up  in  the  hours  of  a single 
night.  Even  so  there  are  seasons,  and  generally  night 
seasons,  in  which  the  process  of  human  growth  is  mar- 
vellously accelerated  and  the  flowers  burst  prematurely 
into  bloom.  Such  lives  cannot  be  measured  by  duration, 
yet  they  do  not  really  come  short  in  quantity ; there  is  less 
diffusion  but  there  is  more  intense  concentration  ; their 
years  are  not  long,  but  they  are  full. 

Wherein  then  consists  the  fulness  of  this  life  of  Abraham  } 
Manifestly  in  the  fact  that  his  is  a complete  life,  embrac- 
ing all  the  stages  of  human  development.  There  are  three 
great  stages  in  the  development  of  man.  The  first  scene 
of  existence  is  one  of  boundlessness,  one  in  which  the  soul 
has  sight  of  a great  and  glorious  promise.  The  second 
stage  is  one  of  limitation  : a cloud  falls  over  the  dream,  and 
the  glory  of  the  promise  seems  to  fade.  Lastly,  there 
comes  a time  when  the  second  stage  is  reconciled  with  the 
first : the  clouds  which  have  gathered  over  the  path  of  life 
are  seen  not  to  be  really  barriers  to  the  fulfilment  of  the 
promise,  but  to  be  working  out,  under  the  semblance  of 
adversity,  the  purpose  and  plan  of  our  opening  years. 

Such  is  the  natural  and  normal  rhythm  of  human  life — 
that  is  to  say,  of  human  life  in  its  complete  manifestation. 
It  is  not  always  that  an  individual  existence  is  thus  per- 
fectly rounded  ; when  it  is,  it  is  an  exhibition  of  the  fulness 
of  being.  Now  such  an  exhibition  of  fulness  is  given  in  the 
earthly  history  of  Abraham.  Here  the  three  stages  are 
marked  prominently  and  emphatically.  We  see,  first,  the 
youth  in  the  boundlessness  of  hope  looking  out  upon  the 
prospect  of  his  destiny,  and  beholding  a promise  of  a king- 
dom. We  see  next  a cloud  falling  over  the  promise  of 
youth,  and  the  prospect  of  the  destiny  threatened  by  the 
imminence  of  a great  sacrifice.  We  see,  lastly,  the  recon- 
ciliation between  the  cloud  and  the  sunshine  ; the  sacrifice 
is  recognised  as  itself  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  and  the 
element  which  seemed  to  be  adverse  is  found  to  have  been 
working  out  the  prophetic  ideal.  Let  us  glance  at  each 
of  these. 

I.  The  first  stage  of  Abraham  s life  is  one  of  promise. 
He  is  introduced  to  us  in  an  attitude  of  aspiration.  There 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


27 


rises  within  him  that  desire  which  in  one  form  or  other 
animates  the  breasts  of  most  young  men — the  longing  for 
greatness.  And  with  Abraham,  as  with  most  young  men, 
the  longing  is  accompanied  by  conviction.  He  feels  that 
he  has  a destiny  before  him,  that  he  has  a name  to  make 
in  the  world.  He  interprets  his  aspiration  itself  as  the 
voice,  the  prophecy  of  God  within  him,  and  his  desire 
becomes  the  measure  of  his  certainty.  He  is  to  become 
the  founder  of  a great  nation  whose  destinies  are  to  in- 
fluence the  fate  of  the  world  ; he  is  to  be  the  progenitor 
of  a vast  multitude  of  descendants  whose  branches  are  to 
stretch  through  the  whole  earth,  and  by  whose  culture  the 
whole  earth  is  to  be  blessed  : such  is  the  vision  of  Abraham. 
And  not  the  least  strange  feature  of  the  vision  is  the  occa- 
sion of  its  waking  ; it  comes  to  him  in  the  contemplation 
of  nature.  God  brings  him  out  to  look  at  the  stars  and 
try  if  he  can  count  their  number,  and  it  is  in  beholding  the 
visible  glory  that  he  recognises  his  own  glory.  To  a man 
in  modern  times  the  command  to  count  the  stars  would 
have  quite  the  opposite  effect  to  that  which  it  produced 
upon  Abraham.  There  is  nothing  which  so  depresses  the 
modern  consciousness  as  the  contemplation  of  the  vastness 
of  nature,  nothing  which  so  appals  the  soul  with  a sense  of 
its  own  littleness.  What  the  Psalmist  said  in  wonder  at  a 
fact,  we  say  in  despair  of  a possibility  : ‘‘  When  I consider 
the  heavens,  the  work  of  Thy  fingers,  what  is  man  that 
Thou  shouldst  be  mindful  of  him.^'’  But  then  we  must 
remember  that  the  difference  between  us  and  the  Hebrew 
mind  lies  deeper.  Our  different  impressions  of  nature  pro- 
ceed from  our  different  views  of  God.  We  come  to  nature 
to  find  God  ; the  Hebrew  came  to  nature  to  commune  with 
a God  whom  he  had  already  found.  The  God  of  the 
Hebrew  was  in  immediate  contact  with  the  soul.  The 
human  soul  was  the  centre  of  His  universe,  and  for  its 
pleasure  and  profit  were  all  things  created.  The  mind  of 
the  ancient  seer  was  not  dismayed  in  looking  abroad  upon 
the  world  of  visible  beauty.  He  came  to  that  vision  with 
the  knowledge  that  God  was  already  in  his  own  heart,  and, 
therefore,  he  was  exalted  rather  than  depressed  by  it.  He 
was  inclined  to  say,  in  anticipation  of  the  spirit  of  the 
Divine  Teacher,  “If  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field, 
shall  He  not  much  more  clothe  you  } 


28 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


So  was  it  with  Abraham.  He  came  out  to  contemplate 
the  expanse  of  the  nightly  heavens,  but  he  had  already 
heard  within  him  a voice  which  had  exalted  him  above  the 
heavens.  What  he  sought  in  the  starry  firmament  was  not 
so  much  a vision  of  the  magnificence  of  creation  as  a 
reflex  or  mirror  of  that  sense  of  expansiveness  which  he 
felt  within  himself.  God  had  spoken  to  his  soul,  and  had 
promised  him  great  things  ; was  it  not  natural  that  in  his 
effort  to  picture  the  promise  he  should  have  cast  his  eye 
abroad  over  the  bespangled  dome  of  night  Nor  to  one 
already  so  impressed  with  the  greatness  of  his  own  soul 
would  the  vastness  and  order  of  the  spectacle  be  fraught 
with  any  depression  ; they  would  rather  have  the  contrary 
effect.  He  would  be  disposed  to  argue  from  the  less  to 
the  greater,  from  the  clothing  of  the  heavenly  fields  to  the 
clothing  of  the  yet  more  heavenly  soul.  In  point  of  fact^ 
Abraham  did  so  argue.  He  retired  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  nature  more  confident  than  ever  of  his  own  splendid 
destiny.  He  felt  that  if  there  were  such  order  in  the  laws 
of  matter,  there  must  be  at  least  an  equal  order  in  the  laws 
of  human  history.  He  felt  that  a single  human  soul  had 
in  it  more  of  God  than  the  united  sum  of  all  this  visible 
glory.  He  felt  anew  that  his  own  aspirations  were  the  voice 
of  God  within  him,  the  promises  of  God  to  his  heart,  and 
he  was  nerved  by  an  impulse  alike  from  without  and  from 
within  to  begin  that  great  historic  labour-  which  was  to 
produce  a race  of  heroes  like  to  the  stars  of  the  heaven  in 
multitude. 

II.  The  next  time  the  curtain  rises  upon  the  life  of  Abra- 
ham the  scene  is  entirely  changed.  A cloud  has  fallen  over 
the  promise  of  his  youth.  The  Divine  will  has  issued  a 
command  to  his  will.  -He  is  told  to  offer  up  as  a sacrifice  his 
only  son  Isaac.  The  command  is  tantamount  to  an  abjur- 
ing of  all  his  youthful  expectations.  These  expectations 
had  centred  in  one  hope — the  promise  that  he  would  be 
the  progenitor  of  a race  whose  power  and  influence  should 
fill  the  world.  To  render  that  hope  vain,  one  stroke  alone 
would  suffice.  The  whole  chain  depended  upon  a single 
link — the  life  of  Isaac  ; let  that  link  be  broken,  and  the 
entire  fabric  must  fall  to  pieces.  Abraham  is  commanded 
to  break  the  link  of  the  chain.  He  is  not  simply  told  that 
it  must  be  broken,  he  is  asked  to  make  his  own  will  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


29 


instrument  in  breaking  it.  Now,  it  is  in  the  obedience  to 
this  command  that  Abraham  comes  before  us  as  a dis- 
tinctively religious  man.  The  piety  of  his  youth,  beautiful 
as  it  undoubtedly  was,  had  yet  consisted  mainly  in  a trust 
of  the  promises  of  God  ; he  is  now  asked  to  trust  God 
Himself,  to  trust  Him  not  simply  without  any  promises, 
but  with  the  seeming  reversal  of  all  His  promises.  The 
star  of  hope  which  had  been  guiding  him  from  the  east  to 
the  place  where  Jehovah  dwelt  fades  away  as  he  draws 
near  to  the  Invisible  Presence.  He  is  called  to  meet  God 
alone,  without  the  star,  to  come  into  the  holy  place  as  the 
Magi  of  an  after  day  came  into  the  manger  and  found  cold 
and  darkness  where  they  expected  to  have  seen  a royal 
palace.  Such  is  in  spirit  the  trial  of  Abraham.  He  had 
accepted  God  for  the  sake  of  His  gifts  ; he  is  asked  to  give 
up  the  gifts,  and  to  accept  God  for  Himself  alone. 

HI.  One  other  scene  remains,  and  it  is  a very  remark- 
able one,  one  which  reconciles  the  days  of  Abraham’s  youth 
with  the  seeming  contrast  of  his  maturer  years.  Abraham 
yields  himself  up  to  the  sacrifice,  and  immediately  the 
hope  of  youth  comes  back  to  him.  No  sooner  is  the  sacri- 
ficial act  completed  than  Isaac,  the  child  of  promise,  is 
restored,  and  along  with  him  is  restored  the  fulness  of 
early  expectation.  It  may  seem  strange  that  we  have 
put  it  thus  ; in  the  popular  view  the  sacrificial  act  was 
never  completed.  But  the  popular  view  is  here  an  illusion. 
What  was  commanded  was  not  really  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac, 
but  the  sacrifice  of  Abraham.  It  has  been  customary 
amongst  theologians  to  regard  Isaac  as  the  type  of  Christ, 
but  in  truth,  if  there  be  any  typology  in  the  matter,  it  must 
be  sought  in  the  father  and  not  in  the  son.  Abraham  him- 
self is  here  the  true  foreshadowing  of  the  Son  of  man,  and 
he  is  so  just  because  his  sacrifice  is  essentially  an  inward 
one,  a surrender  of  the  will.  His  was,  in  the  highest  sense 
of  the  word,  a completed  offering  ; when  He  had  willed  to 
give  up  his  son,  the  whole  process  was  finished,  nor  would 
the  consummation  of  the  outward  act  have  added  anything 
to  its  completeness.  But  the  point  for  us  to  observe  here 
is  that  when  the  will  had  once  been  surrendered,  the  out- 
ward act  was  not  required.  When  the  man  had  yielded 
himself  to  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness,  he 
got  back  even  the  earthly  things  which  he  had  consented 


30  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


to  part  with.  And  Abraham  was  in  this  the  type  of  more 
than  he  knew.  The  scene  of  Mount  Moriah  was  not  simply 
an  episode  which  interrupted  for  a time  the  promise  of  his 
youth,  though  doubtless  to  Abraham  himself  it  appeared 
to  be  so.  To  us,  who  can  look  back  from  the  height  of  a 
modern  standpoint,  the  scene  of  Mount  Moriah  is  not  an 
episode,  but  a sequel  ; not  an  interruption  of  the  promise, 
but  a revelation  of  the  mode  in  which  the  promise  was  to 
be  fulfilled.  The  vision  of  Abraham’s  youth  had  revealed 
to  him  only  the  fact  that  he  was  to  be  the  source  of 
universal  blessing ; it  had  not  told  him  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  to  be  conveyed.  The  scene  of  Mount  Moriah 
took  up  the  vision  of  his  youth,  and  supplied  what  it  had 
left  untold.  Whether  Abraham  knew  it  or  not,  it  was  to 
him  the  completion  of  that  promise  which  had  been  made 
to  his  early  years,  and  it  is  in  that  light  alone  that  posterity 
can  regard  it.  It  may  be  that  in  the  mind  of  the  patriarch 
there  had  often  risen  the  desire  to  know  the  manner  in 
which  his  dream  would  be  fulfilled  ; it  may  be  that  from 
his  heart  there  had  often  ascended  the  prayer  that  he 
might  be  permitted  to  see  the  form  of  this  great  day  of 
blessing.  If  ever  that  desire  was  gratified,  if  ever  that 
prayer  was  answered,  it  must  have  been  in  that  trial  of  his 
later  years,  when  the  command  was  laid  upon  his  soul  to 
sacrifice  the  object  of  his  deepest  love. 

That  in  the  seed  of  Abraham  all  the  families  of  the 
earth  have  been  blessed  is  a matter  of  history,  and  it  is  not 
less  a matter  of  history  that  the  mode  of  blessing  has  been 
the  sacrifice  of  a divinely  human  will.  If  Abraham  saw 
that  day  and  was  glad,  it  must  have  been  through  an  ex- 
perience of  sacrifice  felt  in  his  own  heart ; and  where  could 
he  more  appropriately  find  it  than  in  the  silence  of  that 
stern  hour  of  mental  conflict  when  he  was  called  to  make 
his  choice  between  the  hope  of  his  human  will  and  his  trust 
in  the  will  of  God.  G.  M. 

IV.  Abraham’s  Death.  Gen.  xxv.  8.  '‘'‘Then  Abra- 
hu77i  gave  up  the  ghost,  and  died  in  a good  old  age,  an  old  77ian, 
and  full  of  years  ; and  was  gathered  to  his  peopled 

What  is  the  meaning  of  those  phrases,  and  how  may  they 
be  true  about  you  and  me  ? 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


31 


First,  I want  you  to  look  with  me  at  that  lovely  expres- 
sion for  the  tranquil  and  completed  close  of  a satisfied  life. 
“ He  died,'’  says  the  words,  ‘‘  in  a good  old  age,  an  old 
man,  and  full  of  years.”  This  supplement  seems  a perfectly 
correct  one — ‘Tull  of  years.”  Now  that  last  phrase  is  the 
one  I want  to  fix  upon.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  a 
mere  synonym  for  longevity  ; that  would  be  an  intolerable 
tautology  if  it  were  said  three  times  over : “ an  old  man,” 
“ in  a good  old  age,”  “ full  of  years.” 

There  must  be  some  other  and  some  deeper  meaning 
in  the  phrase,  as  I take  it,  than  that.  And  if  you  notice, 
still  further,  that  the  expression  is  by  no  means  a usual 
one,  that  it  is  only  applied  to  one  or  two  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment characters,  and  those  selected  ones,  I think  you  will 
see,  still  further,  that  there  must  be  some  other  significa- 
tion in  it  than  merely  to  point  to  length  of  days. 

It  is  employed,  for  instance,  in  reference  to  the  patriarch 
Abraham,  to  the  patriarch  Isaac,  when  there  are  almost 
the  same  words,  verbatim,  repeated.  Then  we  find  that  the 
stormy  and  adventurous  career  of  the  great  king  David, 
with  its  wonderful  viscissitudes  and  alternations,  both  of 
moral  character  and  fortune,  is  represented  as  being  closed 
at  last  with  the  tranquil  and  crowning  glory  : “ He  died 
full  of  years,  riches,  and  honour.” 

And  then  we  read  about  the  great  high  priest  Jehoiada, 
whose  life  also  was  full  of  large  vicissitudes,  strange  paral- 
lels, strenuous  strife,  vigorous  effort  of  reformation — we 
read  of  him,  that  with  all  the  storms  behind  him,  he  died 
at  last  “full  of  days.” 

And  the  only  other  instance  is  in  reference  to  the  char- 
acter of  Job,  the  very  type  of  the  glad  man  who  has  passed 
through  a great  many  of  the  ups  and  downs  of  fortune ; 
and  to  him  there  is  given  the  great  compensation  at  the 
end,  and  the  lovely  picture  with  which  that  book  closes  of 
returning  prosperity,  the  morning  sunshine  breaking  in 
upon  the  seclusion  and  the  storm  of  the  night ; the  lovely 
picture  of  returning  prosperity  and  repeated  domestic  joys 
is  crowned  at  last  with  this,  which  is  intended  to  be  the 
very  summit  and  climax  of  the  peace  that  is  breathed 
evidently  over  the  whole  concluding  narrative  was  : “Job 
died,  full  of  years.” 

The  words  then,  as  I take  it,  mean  something  a great 


32 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


deal  more  than  the  mere  dull  fact  that  the  man  had  com- 
pleted the  ordinary  tale  and  term  of  human  existence. 

I think  we  shall  get  to  understand  them  better  if  we  make 
a very  slight  and  entirely  warranted  change,  and  instead  of 
reading ‘‘ full  of  years,'’  read  “satisfied  with  life;  "having 
exhausted  its  possibilities,  having  drunk  a full  draught, 
having  had  as  much  as  he  wanted,  having  nothing  more 
left  to  wish  for,  having  the  stormy  desires  all  quietly 
passed  behind  him,  satisfied,  and  so  willing  to  go. 

Now,  there  are  just  three  things  that  I want  to  say 
about  this  first  thought.  I want  you  to  notice,  for  the 
guidance  of  all  of  us,  that  it  is  possible  for  each  to  make 
his  life  of  such  a sort  as  that  wherever  it  stops,  whether  it 
runs  on  to  the  apparent  maturity  of  old  age,  or  whether  it 
has  in  it  a very  limited  period,  the  man  shall  go  away 
from  life  feeling  that  it  has  satisfied  his  desires,  met  his 
anticipations,  and  been  all  very  good.  Possibly,  that  is  not 
the  way  in  which  a great  many  of  us  look  at  life  ; that  is 
not  the  way  in  which  a great  many  of  us  seem  to  think 
that  it  is  a part  of  Christian  and  religious  character  to  look 
at  life  ; but  it  is  the  way  in  which  the  highest  type  of 
devotion  and  the  truest  goodness  will  always  look  at  it. 
There  are  people,  old  and  young,  who,  whenever  they  look 
back,  whether  it  be  over  a long  tract  of  years  or  over  a 
shorter  one,  have  nothing  to  say  about  it,  except,  “ Vanity 
of  vanities,  all  is  vanity  ! " 

There  are  some  of  my  audience  listening  to  me,  I have 
no  doubt,  who  stand,  as  a man  may  do,  with  his  back  to 
the  sunshine,  and  all  in  front  is  flooded  with  light ; and 
when  he  turns  about,  all  behind  is  dark  and  dreary.  Plenty 
of  us,  whose  memories  contradict  our  hopes  at  every  point, 
and  at  every  moment,  and  who  can  only  expect  blessed- 
ness and  felicity  in  the  future  by  giving  the  lie  to,  and 
forgetting  the  whole  history  of,  our  life.  Plenty  of  us  to 
whom  the  future  lies  like  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  behind 
us  there  is  a blasted  country  like  what  Abraham  saw  when 
he  looked  down  from  the  mountain-top  on  the  plain  of 
Sodom,  and  saw  slime  pits,  and  smoke,  and  sulphur,  and 
stench. 

Because  your  past  has  been  a godless  past ; because 
your  past  has  been  a past  in  which  passion,  inclination, 
whim,  anything  but  conscience  and  Christ,  have  given 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


33 


their  commandment  of  what  you  ought  to  be,  and  of  what 
you  ought  to  do.  And  so  you  live  in  a fooFs  paradise  of 
expectation  about  the  future ; and  all  the  while  the  bitter 
words  of  the  voluptuary,  who  is  represented  as  writing 
the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  are  the  only  words  that  express 
what  is  your  mode  of  life,  “ vanity  of  vanities,  windy 
strife,  and  vexation  of  spirit.” 

Put  by  the  side  of  that  this  calm  picture  of  the  old  man 
going  down  into  his  grave  and  looking  back.  Ah  ! what 
at?  What  at  f Field  for  his  memory  he  had  since  those 
long,  long  ago  days,  when  he  came  away  from  his  father's 
house  an  exile.  How  all  the  hot  anxieties  of  youth,  the 
desires  and  occupations,  have  quieted  themselves  down. 
How  far  away  now  seem  the  warlike  days  of  his  life  when 
he  fought  the  barbarian  kings.  How  far  away  the  pangs 
of  heart  when  he  journeyed  to  Mount  Moriah  with  his  boy, 
the  cord,  the  wood,  the  knife  ! His  love  has  all  been  buried 
in  Sarah's  grave,  a lonely  man  for  many  years.  And  yet 
he  looks  back,  and  as  God  looked  over  His  creative  work, 
he  looks  back  and  says  : ‘‘  It  was  all  for  the  best,  and  the 
great  process  of  my  life  has  been  ordered  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  by  the  hand  that  shapes  beauty  every- 
where, and  has  made  all  things  blessed  and  sweet.  I have 
drunk  full  draughts,  I have  had  enough.  I bless  the 
Giver  of  the  feast,  and  push  my  chair  back,  and  get  up 
and  go  away.”  He  died  an  old  man,  satisfied, — satisfied, — 
with  his  life. 

Ay ! and  what  a contrast  that  makes  to  another  set  of 
people.  There  is  nothing  more  miserable  than  to  see 
men,  as  their  years  go  on,  gripping  harder  and  tighter  at 
this  poor,  fleeting,  mendicant  world  that  is  getting  away 
from  them  ; nothing  sadder  than  to  see  how,  as  the 
opportunities  and  the  capacities  and  the  time  for  the 
possession  of  it  dwindle  and  dwindle  and  dwindle,  the 
almost  ferocity  of  the  desire  with  which  some  of  us  seek 
to  make  it  our  own  increases.  Why,  you  can  see  on  the 
face  of  many  an  old  man  and  woman  a hungry,  eager, 
dissatisfied  look  that  has  not  come  from  the  mere  corru- 
gating of  the  skin,  nor  the  wrinkles  of  anxiety,  nor  the 
physical  changes.  A selfish  passion  of  acquisitiveness 
looking  out  of  the  dim  old  eyes  ; tragical  and  awful  to  see 
a man,  as  the  world  goes  from  him,  grasp  at  its  skirts  as 

D 


34 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


a beggar  does  at  the  retreating  person  that  refuses  to  be- 
stow an  alms  upon  him.  And  there  are  plenty  of  us  who 
feel  that  that  is  our  desire  ; that  the  less  we  have  before 
us  of  life  here  on  earth,  the  more  eagerly  we  grasp  at 
the  little  that  still  remains,  trying  to  get  some  drops  out 
of  the  broken  cisterns  that  we  know  can  hold  no  water. 
How  different  this  blessed  acquiescence  in  the  flitting 
away  of  the  fleeting,  and  this  contented  satisfaction  with 
the  portion  that  has  been  given.  But  all  that  does  not 
mean  any  diminution  of  interest  in  even  the  smallest  trifles 
of  the  world  that  lies  round  about  us ; because  there  is 
another  kind  of  misuse  of  life  which  is  very  common, 
which  looks  like  satisfaction,  but  is  not  satisfaction.  There 
is  a satiety,  a disgust,  a weariness,  a saying  : “ Man  delights 
me  not,  nor  woman  either ! I am  tired  of  it  all,  and  there 
is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.”  This  man  had  a whole- 
some enjoyment  of  life  till  the  last  moment  of  it,  and  a 
wholesome  detachment  from  it  even  in  the  enjoyment  of 
it.  And  I come  to  you,  and  I say  to  you  it  is  possible 
for  you  all  to  wring  the  last  drop  of  sweetness  and  blessed- 
ness out  of  all  the  circumstances  of  life,  to  make  even  its 
disappointments  into  satisfactions,  and  to  make  of  the 
whole  of  it  the  very  thing  that  you  want,  that  you  feel  you 
need  ; to  look  back  upon  it  all,  and  feel  that  it  has  been 
blessed  and  good.  And  yet  not  to  cleave  to  it,  but  to  be 
willing  to  let  it  go.  And  I beseech  you  to  ask  yourselves, 
whether  the  course  of  your  life  is  such  as  that.  If  at  this 
moment  God’s  great  knife  was  to  come  down  and  chop  it 
in  two,  you  would  be  able  to  say : “ Well,  I have  had 
enough,  and  now  contentedly  I go ! ” 

Well  now,  there  is  another  thing  of  the  same  sort,  and 
yet  a little  different,  which  I want  to  say  a word  about.  I 
want  you  to  look  at  the  possibilities  of  your  making  your 
life  what  this  man  made  his — a complete,  rounded,  perfect 
whole,  because  he  had  accomplished  the  great  end  for 
which  life  was  given.  Scaffoldings  are  for  buildings,  and 
the  days  and  years  and  moments  of  our  earthly  lives  are 
the  scaffoldings.  What  are  you  building  inside,  brother } 
What  kind  of  a building  is  it  that  is  going  to  be  there 
when  the  scaffolding  is  knocked  away,  and  the  walls  stand 
there  and  remain  } The  river  rolls  down,  bringing  tons  of 
mud  and  alluvial  deposit ; the  moments,  the  thoughts,  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


35 


words,  the  deeds, — are  there  any  grains  of  gold  brought 
down  with  it  ? If  your  life  and  mine  has  done  one  thing, 
or  rather  two  things  which  are  one  thing,  for  us,  then,  long 
or  short,  it  is  a complete  life.  If  it  has  not,  long  or  short, 
it  is  a wretched  fragment  and  a miserable  abortion.  Man’s 
chief  end  is  to  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  Him  for  ever. 
Has  your  life  helped  you  to  do  that?  If  it  has,  though 
you  be  but  a child,  you  are  full  of  years.  If  it  has  not, 
though  your  hair  be  whitened  with  the  snows  of  the 
nineties,  you  are  yet  incomplete  and  immature.  The  great 
end  of  life  is  to  make  us  like  Christ  and  pleasing  to 
Christ.  If  life  has  done  that  for  us,  we  have  got  the  best 
out  of  it,  and  the  life  is  complete  ; never  mind  about  the 
number  of  the  days.  Quality,  not  quantity,  is  the  thing  that 
determines  the  perfectness  of  life ; and  like  as  in  northern 
lands,  where  there  is  only  a week  or  two  from  the  melting 
of  the  snow  to  the  cutting  of  the  hay,  there  may  be  in  a 
very  brief  space  of  time,  and  a very  short  portion  of  a 
little  life,  there  may  be  a work  which  makes  life  complete. 
Has  it  been  done  in  your  life  ? 

There  is  a suggestion,  further,  in  this  verse  of  the  pos- 
sibility for  us  all,  not  only  of  looking  back  and  feeling 
that  all  has  been  for  good, — not  only  of  making  our  lives 
complete,  be  they  longer  or  shorter,  because  they  have 
contributed  to  the  formation  of  a Christlike  character  and 
led  us  to  know  God, — but  also  the  possibility  of  our  being 
willing  to  go  or  willing  to  abide,  because  we  are  satisfied 
with  life. 

Ah  ! most  of  us  grasp  at  the  continuance  of  our  earthly 
existence  as  a man  whirled  down  the  stream  would  do  at 
any  straw  that  has  toppled  from  the  bank.  Physically,  of 
course,  there  will  always  be  the  desire  you  will  never  get 
away  from,  that  men  will  always  want  to  live  the  bodily 
life  as  long  as  they  have  bodies  to  live  it  with.  That  is  a 
mere  physical  fact ; but  we  may  master  that  and  come  to 
this  position,  which  good  old  Richard  Baxter  has  put  in 
words  whose  very  simplicity  makes  them  eloquent  and 
memorable : 

“ Lord  ! it  belongs  not  to  my  care, 

Whether  I die  or  live.” 


36 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


“ If  life  be  long,  I will  be  glad, 

That  I may  long  obey  ; 

If  short,  yet  why  should  I be  sad 
'To  soar  to  endless  day  ? ” 

So  this  man  here  in  our  text  was  full  of  years,  not  want- 
ing to  go,  not  merely  tired  of  life,  willing  to  abide,  willing 
to  depart,  satisfied. 

Or,  as  I said,  like  a man  sitting  at  a table,  who  has 
had  his  meal,  and  is  quite  content  to  sit  on  there,  restful 
and  cheerful,  but  is  not  unwilling  to  put  back  his  chair  to 
get  up  and  go  away,  thanking  the  Giver  for  what  he  has 
received. 

Ah  ! that  is  the  way  to  die  ; and  how  is  it  to  be  done  ? 
Why,  the  secret  of  it  lies  in  the  commandment  which 
Abraham  received  and  obeyed  : “ I am  the  Almighty 
God  ; walk  before  Me,  and  be  thou  perfect.”  That  is 
to  say,  a life  of  simple  communion  with  God  ; the  realizing 
His  presence  and  feeling  that  He  is  near,  will  sweeten 
disappointments,  will  extract  all  the  good  out  of  life,  will 
make  us  victorious  over  its  pains  and  its  sorrows,  will  turn 
all  that  comes  to  us  into  a joy  and  a blessing,  will  make 
it  all  contribute  to  the  satisfaction  of  our  desires,  and  will 
bring  us  to  feel  at  the  last  that  we  are  ready  for  life  and 
ready  for  death  ; that  this  world  and  the  next  are  but  two 
of  the  mansions  of  our  Father  s house ; and  Death,  the 
dark  narrow  corridor  that  connects  the  one  to  the  other. 
And  so  we  shall  be  ready  and  say  : “ Whether  we  live, 
we  live  in  the  Lord,  or  whether  we  die,  we  die  in  the 
Lord.  Living  or  dying  we  are  God’s.”  And  so  it  does 
not  matter,  so  much  as  people  think,  whether  we  die  or 
live. 

And  now  I have  a thing  or  two  which  I want  to  say 
about  the  last  words  of  this  text.  “ He  died  in  a good  old 
age,  an  old  man,  and  full  of  years  ; and  was  gathered  to  his 
people.” 

Well,  that  too  is  remarkable — a symbol  very  seldom 
employed  in  Scripture.  It  is  only  found  in  the  very  early 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  there  only  in  reference 
to  a very  few  persons. 

But  if  you  will  observe  the  language,  I think  you  will 
see  that  there  is  in  it  a dim  intimation  of  something 
beyond  this  present  life — a life  beyond.  He  “ was  gathered 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


37 


to  his  people”  is  not  the  same  thing  as  to  say,  ‘‘he  died.” 
That  is  disposed  of  in  the  earlier  portion  of  the  verse  in 
two  phrases,  one  of  which  is  remarkable  : “ Abraham  gave 
up  the  ghost,  and  died.”  Being  “ gathered  to  his  people  ” 
is  not  the  same  thing  as  being  buried.  That  is  disposed 
of  in  words  that  come  after  : “ He  was  gathered  to  his 
people,  and  his  sons  Isaac  and  Ishmael  buried  him  in  the 
cave  of  Machpelah.”  It  is  neither  the  equivalent  of  death 
nor  of  burial  ; it  conveys,  dimly  and  veiledly,  that  some- 
how or  other  though  Abraham  was  buried  that  was  not 
all.  He  was  buried  ; yes,  “ he  was  gathered  to  his  peo- 
ple.” Why,  his  own  people  were  buried  away  in  Meso- 
potamia, and  his  grave  was  never  near  them.  What  is 
the  meaning  of  the  expression  ? Who  were  the  people 
that  he  was  gathered  to  in  death  ? “ The  dust  shall  return 

to  the  earth  as  it  was,  and  the  spirit  shall  return  to  God 
that  gave  it.”  Dimly,  vaguely,  veiledly,  but  unmistak- 
ably as  it  seems  to  me,  here  we  have  expressed  a pre- 
monition and  feeling  after  the  thought  of  an  immortal  self 
that  was  not  in  the  Abraham  that  his  sons  Isaac  and 
Ishmael  laid  in  the  grave  at  Machpelah,  but  was  some- 
where else,  and  for  ever. 

That  is  the  first  thing,  the  dim  hint  of  a future.  Any- 
thing more.^  Yes!  “He  was  gathered  to  his  people.” 
Now  remember,  Abraham  was  a wanderer  all  his  life.  His 
life  was  shaped  by  that  commandment  : “ Get  thee  out 
from  thy  father  s house,  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from 
thy  country.” 

He  never  dwelt  with  his  kindred  all  his  days.  He  was 
a pilgrim  and  a sojourner,  a stranger  in  a strange  land  ; and 
though  he  was  living  in  the  midst  of  a civilization — great 
cities  whose  walls  ran  up  to  heaven — he  pitched  his  tent 
' beneath  the  terebinth  tree  at  Mamre,  and  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  all  that  civilization  ; an  exotic,  a waif,  an  outcast 
in  the  midst  of  Canaan  all  his  life.  Why?  Because  “ he 
looked  for  a city  which  hath  foundations,  whose  Builder 
and  Maker  is  God.”  And  now  he  has  gone  to  it,  and  he  is 
“gathered  to  his  people  ; ” the  life  of  isolation  is  over. 

He  is  no  longer  separated  from  those  around  him,  or 
flung  amongst  those  that  are  uncongenial  to  him.  He  is 
gathered  to  his  people,  he  dwells  with  his  own  tribe,  he  is 
at  home,  he  is  in  the  city. 


38  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


And  so,  dear  brethren,  life  for  every  true  man  must  be 
an  isolated  life,  a lonely  life,  after  all  its  communion.  He 
dwells  upon  islands  with  his  fellows,  all  separate  dwellings, 
dotted  over  a great  archipelago,  each  upon  his  little  rock, 
with  the  sea  dashing  between  them.  But  a time  comes 
when,  if  our  hearts  are  set  upon  that  great  Lord  whose 
presence  is  communion,  we  shall  be  brought  together,  and 
enter  into  the  city.  The  future  is  the  perfection  of  society; 
and  amongst  the  people,  Abraham  found  those  that  had 
gone  before  him ; and  reunion  is  sweet  to  the  wanderer.  So 
you  and  I may  find — 

That  with  the  mom  those  angel  faces  smile 
Which  we  have  loved  long  since,  and  lost  awhile.” 

‘‘  He  was  gathered  to  his  people.”  Ay ! and  there  is 
another  thought  here,  and  that  is  association.  According  to 
affinity  and  character  each  is  “ gathered  to  his  people  ; ” — 
to  the  folk  that  he  is  like,  and  that  are  like  him  ; the 
people  with  whom  he  had  sympathy  ; the  people  whose 
lives  were  shaped  after  the  fashion  of  his  own.  That  is 
possible.  Men  will  be  sorted  there.  Gravitation  will  come 
into  play  undisturbed,  and  the  pebbles  will  be  ranged 
according  to  their  weights  on  the  great  ocean-coast  where 
the  sea  has  cast  them  up  ; all  the  big  ones  together,  and 
sized  off  to  the  smaller  ones,  regularly  and  steadily  laid 
out.  Like  draws  to  like.” 

Spiritual  affinities,  religious  character,  the  moral  char- 
acter, will  settle  where  we  are,  and  who  are  our  companions 
when  we  get  yonder.  And  some  of  us  would  not  alto- 
gether like  to  live  with  people  that  are  like  ourselves,  and 
some  of  us  would  not  find  it  very  tolerable. 

The  men  in  the  Dantesque  circles  were  made  more  miser- 
able because  the  men  around  them  were  of  the  same  sort 
as  themselves,  and  some  of  them  worse. 

And  an  ordered  hell,  with  nobody  for  the  liars  but  liars, 
and  nobody  for  the  thieves  but  thieves,  nobody  for  im- 
pure men  but  the  impure,  and  nobody  for  the  godless  but 
the  godless,  would  be  hell  indeed  ! 

“ He  was  gathered  to  his  people,”  and  you  and  I will 
be  gathered  likewise.  Judas  went  to  his  own  place — 
the  place  he  was  fit  for,  the  place  which  he  had  earned, 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


39 


the  country  to  which  he  belonged ! So  shall  we,  so  shall 
we ! 

Let  us  see  to  it  that  we  take  Christ  for  our  Saviour,  and 
give  our  hearts  to  be  shaped  and  purified  by  Him  ; and 
our  country  will  be  where  He  is,  and  His  people  will  be 
our  people,  the  people  with  whom  His  love  abides  ; and 
the  tribe  to  which  we  belong  will  be  the  tribe  of  which  He 
is  the  Chieftain  and  the  Prince.  And  so  shall  we  ever  be 
with  the  Lord. 


V.  I saac.  Heb.  xi.  20.  By  faith  Isaac  blessed  Jacob  and 
Esau  co7icerning  things  to  C077iel 

That  story  of  the  blessing,  which  Jacob  got  by  craft  from 
his  father  Isaac,  presents  very  many  singular  features  which 
we  cannot  enter  upon  now.  But  it  is  a miserable  story  all 
round.  What  with  the  doting  fondness  of  the  old  man, 
the  craft  of  the  mother,  the  selfish  lying  of  Jacob,  and  the 
savagery  of  Esau,  it  is  an  ugly  picture,  every  bit  of  it. 

And  yet  there  was  one  little  point  of  light  in  it,  one 
redeeming  thing  about  it  that  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  here  puts  his  finger  upon  with  certainty.  He 
says — “Yes!  it  is  a wretched  story!  There  is  nobody 
comes  out  of  it  very  clean  ; but  that  man  that  spoke,  he 
spoke,  however  imperfectly  apprehended,  the  truth.  He 
had  in  him  the  little  germ  of  all  that  was  good  and  noble 
in  human  nature,  because  the  blessing  that  he  gave  he  gave 
by  faith!  And  whatever  else  was  bad,  that  was  good. 
And  whatever  else  was  of  the  devil — and  there  was  a great 
deal  of  his  in  the  story — that  was  of  God. 

And  so  that  helps  to  redeem  the  whole  story,  and  to  lift 
it  up  into  another  region  altogether.  “ By  faith  Isaac 
foolish,  fond,  doting,  blind,  blundering,  weak  as  he  was,  “ by 
faith  Isaac  blessed  Jacob  and  Esau  concerning  things  to 
come.”  I need  not  enter  upon  the  question,  although  it 
is  one  that  would  afford  very  fruitful  consideration  as  to 
how  these  came  to  lie,  side  by  side,  in  the  patriarch’s  expe- 
rience, all  these  manifold  faults  and  imperfections,  and  yet 
some  kind  of  prophetic  power  which  made  his  blessing  a 
prophecy,  and  therefore  a reality  that  could  not  be  altered 
when  once  it  was  spoken. 


40 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


That  would  take  us  too  far  away  ; but  what  I would  rather 
fix  upon  for  our  consideration  is  that  one  thought  of  the 
faith  that  the  writer  here  signalizes  as  being  predominant 
in  the  character, — at  least,  more  than  distinctly  there. 

And  the  next  thing  that  I would  suggest  is,  that  we  get 
here  the  faith  of  this  man  and  of  all  of  us  in  its  substance. 
Isaac’s  faith,  what  was  it } A firm  reliance,  rising  some- 
times to  absolute  certainty,  of  things  far  beyond  the  ken 
of  mortals,  his  faith  at  first  sight  grasped  material  bless- 
ings, but  they  were  unseen  ones,  and  that  is  the  point  that 
this  writer  could  dwell  upon  first. 

But  that  does  not  go  to  the  bottom  of  it,  although  a great 
many  people  seem  to  think,  and  we  hear  them  speak  as  if 
faith  was  concerned  only  with  the  unseen.  Not  necessarily. 
Faith  at  bottom  has  not  to  do  with  things,  but  with  persons  ; 
and  Isaac’s  faith — like  that  of  all  those  other  heroes,  sages, 
warriors,  and  patriarchs  in  this  grand  roll-call  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews — whatever  it  was  secondarily  concerned 
with,  was  primarily  concerned  with  God.  God’s  word  and 
character,  what  He  had  shown  himself  to  be,  was  the  object 
of  these  men’s  faith.  And  sometimes  the  object  of  their 
faith  was  a God  that  threatened,  as  in  the  case  of  Noah. 
Sometimes  it  was  a God  that  commanded,  as  when  the 
Israelites  compassed  the  walls  of  Jericho;  sometimes  a 
God  that  promised,  as  in  the  case  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob.  Sometimes  their  faith  laid  hold  of  a past  fact, 
sometimes  upon  a present  fact,  sometimes  upon  a future 
one  ; but  wherever  it  led  them,  the  materials  of  it  was 
their  confidence  in  God,  and  they  believed  His  word 
utterly. 

Or,  to  put  it  into  other  words,  our  faith  may  either  go 
backward  or  forwards  or  upwards  ; it  may  either  be  con- 
cerned with  the  deep  things  of  Divine  revelation,  or  with 
the  common  things  that  lie  round  about  us.  We  take  them 
all  because  we  trust  in  God,  and  faith  is  confidence  in  the 
Divine  Lord  of  past,  present,  and  future.  And  then,  as  this 
chapter  says  at  the  beginning,  '‘Faith  is  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.”  What 
our  faith  has  to  grasp  is  God  in  Christ,  and  only  through 
Him  do  we  see  the  things  that  are  unseen.  First,  we  must 
“behold  the  King  in  His  beauty,”  and  then  and  thereby 
we  shall  “ see  the  land  that  is  very  far  off.” 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


41 


And  so  this  old  story  shows  us  that  the  beginning  of 
faith  is  confidence  in  God  ; and  the  field  in  which  the  faith 
that  trusts  Him  moves  and  expatiates  is  the  blessed  region 
beyond,  into  which  the  eye  cannot  pass,  but  in  which  certain 
hope  and  desire  may  walk,  blessed  and  calm  as  the  angels 
of  God. 

Brethren  ! everything  that  lifts  a man  out  of  the  mire 
of  to-day  helps  to  make  him  good  and  pure  and  strong. 
Even  the  poorest  earthly  anticipation,  if  only  it  has  got 
about  it  the  magic  touch  of  being  in  the  future  and  being 
unseen,  is  more  noble  than  when  it  is  possessed.  That 
is  why  people  say  about  this  world’s  good,  “ The  chase  is 
better  than  the  prey  when  caught,”  the  run  is  more  than 
the  hare.  Everything  in  the  future  is  invested  with  a halo 
that  disappears  when  you  get  near  it.  The  mountains  that 
ring  our  horizon  in  the  country  of  the  Alps  look  violet  and 
roseate  in  soft  glow,  and  when  you  get  up  there,  they  are 
cold  cliffs  and  rocks  and  snow  ; barrenness  and  roughness 
and  death. 

The  future,  even  when  it  is  made  of  the  same  stuff  as  the 
present,  is  more  ennobling  in  its  effect  upon  a man  than 
itself  will  be  when  he  gets  beside  it.  But  if,  instead  of  living 
on  these  lower  levels,  we  lift  our  eyes  up  to  those  everlasting 
hills,  and  live  by  the  power  of  that  unseen  reality,  then 
all  life  is  transfigured,  ennobled,  purified,  and  the  man 
becomes  greater  because  he  lays  hold  of  the  things  un- 
seen, and  he  lays  hold  of  them  because  he  first  lays  hold 
of  God. 

And  then  another  lesson  that  we  get  very  strikingly  in 
the  story  of  Isaac’s  life  is  faith  in  its  operation.  How 
singularly  the  second  of  the  great  Jewish  patriarchs  differed 
from  the  first  and  the  third.  Not  a hero  like  Abraham, 
not  a’man  with  a strong  life  like  Jacob,  Isaac  had  no  need 
of  the  perfecting  discipline  so  necessary  for  Jacob  before  he 
could  become  Israel : he  never  attained  to  anything  like  the 
greatness  and  nobleness  of  his  father.  A decent,  plain,  quiet 
man,  living  all  his  days  with  his  flocks  and  herds  in  the  south ; 
no  heroisms,  no  force  of  character,  just  a respectable,  ordi- 
nary, quiet,  pastoral  chief.  When  the  Philistines  quarrelled 
with  him  about  a well,  he  quietly  went  away  and  dug 
another ; when  they  quarrelled  about  that,  he  dug  a third  ; 
and  so  passed  all  his  life  in  the  desert.  He  seems  to  have 


42 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


had  few  causes  of  excitement — no  great  changes  in  his  life, 
was  never  impelled  by  any  desire  to  seek  them.  He  had 
no  Divine  revelation,  as  his  father  and  his  son  had  in  their 
lives.  There  he  was,  quiet  in  the  land.  ‘‘  Blessed  are  the 
meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth.” 

And  it  is  very  beautiful,  I think,  to  see  in  his  life  how  the 
same  principle  that  made  the  grand  organ  music  of  the 
enumeration  of  its  effects  in  this  chapter,  the  same  principle 
that  “ subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained 
promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  violence 
of  fire,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the  armies  of 
the  aliens  and  so  on,  dropped  down  to  the  low  level  of  this 
very  prosaic,  commonplace  life,  he  found  a sufficient  field 
in  making  that  quiet  mission  peaceful  and  pure,  and  wrapped 
about  with  God  through  his  earthly  days.  Let  us  take  that 
lesson  : there  is  no  need  for  great  events  in  our  lives — great 
services,  great  sacrifices,  great  manifestations  of  the  Divdne 
favour.  The  life  that  runs  smoothly  maybe  as  full  of  faith 
as  the  life  that  stormily  surges  amidst  the  rocks  and  comes 
down  the  cataract.  There  may  be  as  much  power  in  the 
still  river  among  the  pastures  of  the  south  of  England, 
that  flows  gently  and  quietly  in  its  course,  as  there  is  in  the 
torrent  that  dashes  among  the  mountains.  The  life  of  a 
quiet  domestic  character,  with  nothing  conspicuous  about 
it,  may  be  as  truly  and  as  blessedly  under  the  influence 
of  the  highest  Christian  principle  as  the  noblest  and  the 
greatest  of  those  recorded  here.  Not  the  outward  form 
but  the  inward  motive  makes  the  greatness  of  the  life,  and 
the  field  of  faith  may  be  the  fireside  and  the  back  of  the 
counter  and  the  home  circle.  Its  trophies  may  be  as  great 
amongst  those  whom  there  were  none  to  praise  and  very 
few  to  love  as  amongst  those  whose  names  are  written 
highest  and  in  most  perennial  characters  on  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  the  Church  of  God. 

Isaac  was  as  truly  a son  of  faith  as  the  hero  Abraham, 
or  as  the  far  richer  and  more  complex  character  of  his  son 
Jacob.  And  then  I might  point  you  to  two  things  in 
Isaac’s  life  which  bear  upon  this  quesdon.  There  is  very 
little  recorded  about  him,  as  you  will  see  if  you  will 
turn  to  the  Book  of  Genesis  ; but  there  are  two  things 
told  about  him,  one  concerning  his  history  and  the  other 
concerning  his  friendly  relations  with  the  people  amongst 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


43 


whom  his  lot  was  cast.  He  dwelt  a long  time  amongst 
the  Philistines,  and  there,  as  I said,  they  quarrelled 
about  the  wells.  He  simply  gave  them  up,  and  went 
and  dug  others.  Well,  take  that  lesson.  One  of  the 
most  marked  effects  of  Christian  faith  ought  to  be  that  of 
making  men  gentle  and  forbearing  ; not  holding  on  by 
their  rights  tooth  and  nail,  fighting  with  everybody  for  a 
penny,  so  that  nobody  shall  say  they  got  the  advantage  of 
them.  The  effect  of  true  Christian  faith  will  always  be  to 
make  a man  yield  rather  than  fight,  suffer  wrongly  rather 
than  shriek,  and  call  heaven  to  earth,  and  take  claws  and 
teeth  in  order  to  contend  for  what  is  his. 

That  principle  is  as  true  to-day  as  it  ever  was,  and  our 
Lord  Himself  has  told  us,  in  words  that  it  is  very  con- 
venient for  us  to  say  are  to  be  interpreted  with  much 
limitation  : He  that  compelleth  thee  to  go  a mile,  go 

with  him  twain.  If  a man  will  take  thy  coat,  let  him  have 
thy  cloak  also.'’  Faith  makes  men  gentle,  ay  ! and  more 
than  that,  the  faith  that  makes  men  gentle  tells  its  own 
story  to  the  outsider.  These  same  wrangling  and  dis- 
honest Philistines,  that  stole  the  wells  and  then  turned 
Isaac  out  of  their  territory,  because  he  was  getting  too 
strong  for  them,  and  they  began  to  be  afraid  of  him, — 
what  did  they  do  next  ? He  quietly  went  away,  and  as  is 
always  the  case,  he  was  scarcely  gone  when  they  sent  for 
him  to  come  back  again  ; and  they  say  to  him  : ‘‘  Come 
back  to  us,  for  we  know  that  the  Lord  is  with  thee." 

That  is  to  say,  if  your  faith  is  worth  the  snap  of  a finger 
it  will  tell  its  own  story  to  outsiders.  They  will  be  glad 
to  have  you  beside  them  for  more  or  less  worthy  motives  ; 
but  the  motives  we  have  nothing  to  do  with,  the  point  is 
that  it  will  be  like  the  ‘‘ointment  of  the  right  hand  that 
bewrayeth  itself,  and  it  cannot  be  hid."  And  bad  as  the 
world  is,  it  is  not  so  bad  but  that  it  knows  a good  man 
when  it  sees  him  ; and  bad  as  it  is,  it  is  not  so  bad  but  it 
has  a kind  of  respect  for  him  when  it  sees  him.  And  in 
the  long  run,  whatsoever  persecution  and  wrong-doing 
there  may  be,  “ the  meek-doing  shall  inherit  the  earth  " in 
a real  sense  ; and  the  meek  man  will  get  what  a good 
many  people  would  sell  themselves  to  get — the  good 
opinion  of  the  men  around  him  ; just  because  he  does  not 
look  for  it,  or  care  to  try  to  get  it,  but  simply  lives  right- 


44 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


eously.  For  though  the  Philistines  may  steal  the  wells, 
they  all  the  while  respect  the  man  from  whom  the  robbery 
has  been  made. 

And  then  let  us  take  consolation  from  the  other  thought, 
that  this  man  was  a man  of  faith,  though  he  was  a man 
of  a great  many  imperfections.  I said  at  the  beginning 
of  these  remarks,  that  the  story  of  the  blessing  was  an 
ugly  story  all  round,  and  Isaac  does  not  come  out  of  it 
very  clean  either.  And  there  are  other  points  that  come 
out  of  the  narrative  of  his  life,  which  show  that  he  was  by 
no  means  a faultless  monster ; and  yet  for  all  that  he  was 
a man  of  faith. 

Now  that  is  not  a pillow  for  lazy  people  to  lay  their 
heads  upon,  and  say : “ There  is  no  need  for  me  to  strive 
after  the  perfection  of  my  faith,  because  it  may  co-exist 
with  imperfection.”  Yes  ! it  may.  But  did  you  ever  hear 
that  it  could  exist  with  imperfections  that  people  knew 
about  and  did  not  try  to  mend  ? Is  there  anything  in  the 
Bible  that  says  that  a man’s  faith  is  consistent  and  upright 
up  to  a certain  point,  without  his  doing  anything  to  remedy 
or  prevent  failure  } 

Faith  may  be  consistent  with  failure;  thank  God  we 
cannot  say  how  much  failure  may  co-exist  with  faith ; but 
let  us  remember  that  all  faith  is  necessarily  effort,  that  the 
smallest  sin  that  we  do  not  fight  against  will  be  like  a little 
grain  of  sand  dropped  into  the  works  of  a fine  clock,  it 
will  spoil  all  the  wheels  and  break  the  mainspring  sooner 
or  later,  that  is  if  you  do  not  get  it  out. 

And  so  whilst  there  is  no  reason  for  anything  but 
humble  penitent  confidence  even  in  the  consciousness  of 
imperfections,  there  is  no  reason  for  any  reliance  upon  my 
faith  which  is  not  accompanied  with  honest,  continual 
effort  to  fight  against  my  thoughts  and  my  sins.  And, 
thank  God  ! the  quiet  husbandman,  whose  life  ran  in  one 
level  all  along,  scarcely  ever  brightened  by  anything  great 
or  grand,  as  far  as  we  know  it,  rose  at  last,  though  amidst 
many  faults,  into  a flash  of  grand,  vivid  consciousness  of  a 
blessed  future. 

And  that  is  what  you  and  I have  to  hope  for,  by  God’s 
grace,  if  we  keep  near  to  Him,  doing  our  common  tasks 
in  cheerful  godliness  ; at  the  end  even  of  a very  prosaic, 
commonplace,  low-lying  life,  there  may  come  a gleam,  as 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


45 


upon  some  winter  day  there  comes  a bit  of  red  in  the  sky 
towards  the  west,  there  may  come  a gleam  at  the  last  that 
shall  show  us  all  the  brightness  to  come,  ay  ! and  make  us 
feel  that  it  is  a real  thing. 

And  so,  living  by  a quiet  humble  faith,  we  may  die  in 
the  triumph  and  faith  that  grasps  the  things  unseen, 
because  it  reaches  out  its  hand  to  grasp  the  unseen  and 
eternal. 


VI.  Jacob  at  Bethel.  Genesis  xxxv.  i.  And  God 

said  unto  Jacoby  Arise^  go  up  to  Bethel^  and  dwell  there  : and 
make  there  an  altar  unto  God^  that  appeai'ed  unto  thee  when 
thou  fleddest  from  the  face  of  Esau  thy  br other P 

It  was  somewhere  about  thirty  years  since  Jacob  had 
vowed  that  vow  which,  even  when  he  made  it,  was  not  of 
a very  high  tone.  He  made  his  bargain  very  tight  when 
he  said  : If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me  in 

this  way  that  I go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  rai- 
ment to  put  on,  and  see  that  I come  again  to  my  father's 
house  in  peace,  then  " — after  he  has  done  all  that  for  me — 
“ then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God  ! " 

Yes!  I should  think  so!  He  was  his  God  before  He 
did  all  that  for  him.  “ And  this  stone  which  I have  set 
for  a pillar  shall  be  God’s  house  ; and  of  all  which  Thou 
shalt  give  me  I will  give  the  tenth  unto  Thee.” 

Well,  it  was  not  much  of  a vow  to  begin  with,  but  if  we 
think  of  the  exceedingly  leisurely  manner  in  which  he  set 
about  keeping  it,  there  is  even  a darker  hue  over  the  patri- 
arch’s character,  even  at  its  highest  and  its  best.  And  a 
very  little  comparison  of  the  events,-  as  they  may  be  de- 
duced from  the  narrative,  will  show  us  that  God  had  done 
all  which  Jacob  had  laid  down  as  the  conditions  ten  years 
ago;  that  Jacob  had  “comeback  to  his  place  in  peace,” 
having  prospered  far  beyond  all  hope  and  expectation. 
He  had  gone  out  a fugitive  and  come  back  a rich  man  ; 
gone  out  lonely,  come  back  with  all  his  household  and  his 
wealth.  And  when  he  had  thus  come  back,  instead  of 
going  straight  to  Bethel  to  fulfil  his  vow,  he  settled  himself 
quietly  down  at  Shechem  ; and  in  that  lovely  valley,  the 
fairest  spot  in  the  whole  land  of  Palestine,  he  buys  a bit  of 


46 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


ground,  makes  himself  exceedingly  comfortable,  and  seems 
to  have  forgotten  all  about  the  vow  that  he  had  made.  So 
that  there  needs  this:  “And  God  said  unto  Jacob,  Arise, 
Go  up  to  Bethel ! ” “ Do  you  remember  } Go  up  to  Bethel^ 

and  dwell  there  ; and  make  an  altar  there/^ 

You  might  almost  put  these  words  into  inverted  com- 
mas ; the  Lord  is  quoting  the  vow : “ Make  there  an  altar 
unto  God.'’  And  then  comes  a very  sharp  twinge  : “ That 
appeared  unto  thee  when  thou  fleddest  from  the  face  of 
thy  brother.’^ 

Ah  ! Is  not  that  a picture  of  a great  many  more  people 
besides  Jacob  How  many  of  us,  for  instance,  think  of 
our  religion  very  much  as  if  it  was  an  umbrella  or  a cloak, 
a thing  for  stormy  weather  ! How  we  pray  when  we  want 
anything  ; how  when  God's  hand  is  upon  us,  and  sickness 
or  perplexity  or  disaster  or  loss,  or  the  rupture  of  family 
ties  comes  to  us  and  opens  for  a moment  a glimpse  into 
the  kingdoms  beyond,  how  we  can  pray  then  and  live 
decided  then  ! And  how,  when  the  storm  has  passed,  and 
the  burden  is  lifted  off  our  shoulders,  how  we  do  just  like 
Jacob  did,  settle  down  at  Shechem,  and  forget  all  the  past 
when  we  lay  there  with  our  head  on  the  stones,  and  the 
black  night  above  us,  and  a dark  dim,  future  before  us. 
Ready  to  vow  at  the  beginning  of  a questionable  under- 
taking ; very,  very  slow  to  pay  at  the  successful  end  of  it. 
Ready  to  say:  “When  I am  commencing  this  task,  the 
issue  of  which  I do  not  know,  the  difficulties  of  which  I 
may  not  be  able  to  meet ; " ready  to  say  then  : “ If  Thou 
wilt  do  so-and-so,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God.”  But 
when  He  has  done  so-and-so,  not  in  such  a hurry  to  pay 
the  vow.  How  many  of  us  have  more  prayers  for  the 
unknown  future  on  the  ist  January,  than  we  have  thanks- 
givings for  the  forgotten  past  on  the  31st  December  ! It 
is  not  Jacob  only  that  was  full  of  vows  at  Bethel,  and  in 
thirty  years  forgetting  them  just  because  God  so  com- 
pletely remembered  His  part. 

Well,  and  there  is  another  way  of  looking  at  it,  for  I 
only  want  to  take  the  plain  practical  lessons  out  of  this  little 
story  now.  A good  many  resolutions  that  most  of  us 
made  in  the  early  days  of  our  Christian  career,  how  many 
of  them  can  we  look  back  upon  and  say  we  have  kept, 
and  how  many  of  them  have  gone  to  water } Jacob  was 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


47 


not  a young  man  really  when  he  began  his  course  at 
Bethel,  but  he  may  stand  for  us  as  a type  of  the  buoyant, 
joyful,  confident  resolutions  which  we  are  so  apt  to  make  at 
the  commencement  of  our  career. 

There  is  nothing  sadder,  I think,  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church,  and  in  the  history  of  the  individual  souls 
that  make  it  up,  than  the  dreadful  frequency — I was  almost 
going  to  say  uniformity — with  which  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  career  is  always  so  much  more  bright  than  the 
reality  of  that  same  career  when  years  have  passed.  Is 
there  any  reason  why  it  should  be,  so  frequently  as  it  is 
amongst  all  of  us  Christian  people,  the  experience  that  the 
beginning  of  the  course  promises  far  more  fairly  than  the 
middle  and  the  end  of  the  course  realizes  ? Why  should 
the  morning  always  be  the  sunniest  part  of  the  day  ? Why 
should  it  always  cloud  over ; or,  if  not  always,  at  least  so 
often  that  it  is  little  exaggeration  to  say  always  ? Why 
should  the  average  Church  member  and  professing  Christ- 
ian, in  all  our  communities,  be  obviously  a man  or  woman 
whose  religious  growth  has  been  stopped  and  stunted  ? 
Why  should  it  be  that  most  of  us  have  in  our  memories 
a Bethel  at  the  beginning,  the  vows  made  at  which  are 
unfruitful  to  this  day } Is  it  so,  my  brother,  or  is  it  not, 
with  us  ? 

Well,  let  us  go  on  with  the  story,  and  see  w^hat  it^was 
that  kept  this  man  from  going  there  and  builHmg  his^ltar 
and^oing  as  hc' said.  There  are  two  things  clearly  that 
kept  him,  besides  the  fact  that  in  the  years  that  passed, 
the  impression  of  his  early  days  had  been  forgotten,  and 
that  the  very  continuance  of  the  Divine  mercy  had  made 
him  less  conscious  of  it  than  he  was  at  the  beginning, 
when  it  was  all  problematical. 

One  of  the  Fathers  says  somewhere,  that  “ God  by  assid- 
uity loses  admiration  ; and  that  is  one  reason  w^hy  these 
vows  were  not  rendered,  viz.  that  the  gifts  had  been  so 
continuous  that  the  continuity  had  destroyed  the  impres- 
sion of  its  greatness  and  had  deadened  the  sense  of 
admiration.  If  there  had  been  breaks  in  it,  parentheses, 
no  man  would  have  felt  it  more.  No  man  enjoys  health 
so  well  as  the  man  who  has  good  health  now  and  then 
broken  up  by  a great  many  bad  days. 

But  besides  that  one  operative  cause  there  are  plenty  in 


48 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


the  narrative.  What  did  Jacob  do  as  soon  as  he  got  this 
commandment } That  will  answer  the  question  what  it 
was  that  kept  him  from  doing  it  before.  ‘‘  Arise ! Go  to 
Bethel,  and  build  an  altar.”  ‘‘  Then  said  Jacob  unto  his 
household  and  all  that  were  with  him,  Put  away  the 
strange  gods  that  are  among  you,  and  be  clean,  and 
change  your  garments.”  And  they  gave  unto  Jacob  all 
the  strange  gods  which  were  in  their  hand,  and  all  their 
earrings,  and  Jacob  hid  them  under  the  oak  which  was  by 
Shechem.”  And  when  they  had  got  rid  of  them  “ they 
journeyed  ” and  came  back  to  Bethel. 

Well,  put  that  into  other  words,  and  it  comes  to  this : 
The  man  settled  himself  down  at  Shechem.  There  was  a 
great  valley,  and  more  grass  for  his  cattle  there  than  there 
was  at  Bethel  ; Mt_w^  a better  place  to  pitch.  ‘‘  Business 
prospects  were  more  promising”  at  SKechem,  and  of 
course  we  know  that  that  is  the  first  thing  that  any  man 
ought  to  consider  in  all  his  ways.  And  so  of  course  it 
would  answer  better  to  stop  at  Shechem  than  to  go  to 
Bethel.  The  plainest  dictates  of  duty  said  : “ Stop  at 
Shechem ! Never  mind  the  vow  ! ” And  he  stopped 
there  ; and  he  was  very  nearly  getting  into  the  same 
position  that  his  relative  Lot  got  into,  when  he  and  Abra- 
ham stood  on  the  hill-top  here,  and  looked  over  all  the 
plain  of  Jordan;  and  Abraham  had  said:  “You  choose 
first  the  bit  of  land  you  like.”  And  Lot  saw  the  cities 
of  the  plain ; he  saw  the  plains  were  fertile,  and  he  knew 
the  cities  were  sinful,  but  he  answered  : “ I will  go  down 
among  the  godless  ones.  There  is  plenty  of  pasture  there.” 
And  we  know  what  it  led  him  to  ; only  God’s  mercy 
stopped  him  before  he  got  to  the  end.  And  Jacob  did 
not  go  to  Bethel,  because  the  pastures  where  he  was  were 
good. 

That  is  to  say,  the  thing  that  tugs  us  back  is  this  poor 
sinful,  miserable  world  ; the  thing  that  keeps  us  from  ful- 
filling these  resolutions  is  because  the  world  is  always 
plucking  at  our  skirts  and  keeping  us  from  rising.  The 
thing  that  ties  us  down  to  the  past,  which  we  know  is 
an  unworthy  past,  is,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the  mere 
incapability  of  getting  rid  of  the  temptation  of  earthly 
treasures  and  earthly  conveniences  and  comforts. 

And  we  must  do  as  Jacob  did — huddle  them  all  to- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


49 


^ether  and  bury  them  under  the  oak-tree,  and  leave  them 
behind  us,  before  we  can  go  onwards  to  build  the  altar  of 
God  at  Bethel.  And  another  thing  that  I must  just 
touch  upon.  There  must  have  been  something  very  wrong 
in  Jacob’s  household  before  there  could  have  been  idols 
and  emblems  of  idolatry  amongst  them  sufficient  to  make 
it  necessary  to  get  rid  of  them.  How  came  that  about, 
that  Jacob’s  wives  and  sons  and  daughters  were  people 
of  that  sort.  Such  a household,  so  wild  a set,  with  a wife 
that  was  an  idolater,  with  sons  that  were  murderers,  with 
daughters  that  were  light  of  heart  and  light  of  conduct — 
such  a household  as  that  did  not  say  much  for  the  patri- 
arch’s wisdom  and  holiness.  And  it  was  because  of  the 
domestic  associations  being  against  him,  and  keeping  him 
from  going  to  Bethel,  no  doubt,  that  he  delayed  so  long 
before  he  went. 

Which  being  translated  is  just  this  : — Let  us  take  care 
that  a man’s  foes  shall  not  be  they  of  his  own  household  ; 
and  that  those  that  are  dear  to  us  shall  not  be  hindrances 
in  the  way  of  a consistent  and  unworldly  Christian  pro- 
fession. And  you  fathers  and  mothers,  do  you  see  to  it 
that  you  do  not  set  up  or  permit  ways  of  living,  occupa- 
tions, amusements,  associations,  companionships,  in  your 
household,  which  war  against  your  best  interest,  as  well 
as  against  that  of  those  who  are  more  immediately  con- 
cerned in  it.  And  remember,  the  one  way  by  which  we 
can  fulfil  our  early  resolutions  and  keep  the  mid-day  and 
the  evening  of  our  Christian  life  up  to  the  level  of  the 
early  hopes  of  the  bright  morning,  is  the  old  way  of  sacri- 
fice and  surrender,  and  the  offering  up  of  everything  that  is 
a hindrance  to  our  communion  with  the  God  of  Bethel. 

The  first  step  towards  the  building  of  the  altar  was  the 
bundling  together  of  all  the  strange  gods  that  had  tempted 
these  people,  and  the  digging  of  a hole  there  below  the 
tree,  and  putting  them  all  in,  and  covering  them  well  over 
with  the  sods,  and  leaving  them  there  for  anybody  that 
liked  to  find  them. 

And  then  let  me  remind  you  how  this  sacrifice  is  re- 
warded by  the  rapt  vision  and  the  renewed  and  enlarged 
promise  from  the  God  of  Bethel.  He  goes  to  the  place  : 
I wonder  what  he  thought  when  he  got  there,  and  saw 
the  old  stone  that  he  had  stuck  up  there  forty  years 

E 


50 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


before,  and  remembered  how,  when  he  had  stood  by  it,  his 
heart  had  been  heavy  within  him  until  he  saw  that  vision 
at  the  top  of  the  ladder,  and  tried  to  recover  for  a moment 
those  early  thoughts  with  which  he  had  set  out  on  his 
journey.  I wonder  if  he  said  to  himself : “ What  a poor 
ungrateful  creature  I have  been  ! I will  try  to  make  it 
better  for  the  time  to  come,  at  all  events.*’ 

“ And  the  Lord  came  unto  him  again,  and  blessed  him,” 
and  confirmed  to  him  his  mighty  name  of  Israel,  and  the 
promise  of  the  land.  And  then  Jacob  raised  his  pillar,  and 
poured  out  a drink-offering ; and,  with  a double  meaning, 
called  the  name  of  the  place  once  more  “ Bethel,”  the  house 
of  God. 

That  is  to  say : the  old  man’s  vision  may  be  a deeper 
and  a more  glorious  edition  of  the  young  man’s  dream. 
The  one  in  the  night,  the  other  in  the  day ; the  one  a 
narrow  promise,  the  other  a wider  word  ; the  one  limited 
almost  to  an  earthly  blessing,  the  other  expanding  to  im- 
mortal hopes  and  celestial  glories.  And  thus  the  fathers 
that  knew  Him  that  was  from  the  beginning  may  know 
Him  with  a deeper  knowledge,  and  hope  in  Him  with  a 
grander  hope,  than  the  young  men  that  start  on  their 
careers  with  the  knowledge  of  the  future. 

But  remember,  the  surrender  of  the  idols  is  the  only 
way  to  see  God  ; and  they  who,  for  dear  love’s  sake  of  the 
Christ  that  died,  come  with  their  broken  vows  and  lay 
them  at  His  feet,  shall  find  pardon,  and  shall  receive  a 
nobler  vision  than  even  that  with  which  He  blessed  the 
beginning  of  their  Christian  course. 


VII.  J acob's  Death,  Heb.  xi.  21.  By  faith  Jacoby 
when  he  7aas  a dyings  blessed  both  the  sons  of  Joseph ; and 
worshipped^  leaning  upon  the  top  of  his  staffp 

There  were  surely  plenty  of  pieces  of  Jacob’s  life  that 
might  have  served  the  writer’s  purpose  better  as  illus- 
trations of  faith  than  these  two  comparatively  neglected 
events  at  the  close  of  it,  and  surprise  has  often  been  ex- 
pressed, that,  with  the  whole  field  of  the  recorded  biography 
of  the  patriarch  to  choose  from,  the  writer  should  have  chosen 
just  these  two  little  things, — the  dying  benediction  and  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


51 


dying  adoration.  And  yet  perhaps  we  may,  without  being 
fanciful,  find  a reason  in  the  very  comparative  insignifi- 
cance of  the  act.  The  smaller  the  thing  done  the  more 
perhaps  is  it  an  evidence  of  the  all-pervading  power  of 
faith  in  the  man’s  life.  It  is  perhaps  more  to  say  about 
people — they  did  the  little  things  of  life  by  faith,  than  to 
say — they  did  the  big  ones.  Anybody  can  come  to  the 
height  of  a great  action,  but  to  have  my  faith  so  close  to 
my  hand  that  it  naturally  influences  the  trivialities  of  my 
days,  that  is  a demonstration  of  its  power  in  me.  And  so 
I think  there  need  be  no  stumbling-block  in  the  minute- 
ness of  the  event  that  is  chosen  as  the  illustration  from  the 
life  of  Jacob.  There  is  another  remark,  viz.  : that  there  are 
two  very  distinct  incidents  recorded  here  in  inverted  order 
to  that  of  their  occurrence.  The  one— the  benediction  upon 
the  sons  of  Jacob  ; and  the  other  the  event  that  preceded 
that,  which  is  recorded  by  the  side  of  it  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  when  the  patriarch,  dying,  sent  for  his  son  and 
exacted  from  him  an  oath  that  he  would  not  leave  his  bones 
there  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  but  would  bury  him  in  the  land 
in  which  he  had  no  inheritance  ; and  when  the  promise 
was  given,  fell  back,  as  our  Bible  has  it — in  adoration ; 
or  rather  turned  himself  on  the  bed  in  adoration,  and  in  quiet 
triumphant  contemplation  of  the  God  in  whom  he  trusted. 
The  explanation  of  the  diversity  of  expression  in  my  text 
to  that  of  the  alternative  in  the  Book  of  Genesis — “ wor- 
shipped on  the  top  of  his  staff” — the  explanation  of  that 
variety  is  very  simple  and  natural.  The  Hebrew  which 
means  bed,  means  also  staff  according  as  you  supply  one 
or  another  set  of  vowels — you  know  there  were  no  vowels 
in  the  Hebrew  language — which  leaves  some  expressions  a 
little  doubtful  at  times.  The  translator  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  has  adopted  the  one  reading,  and  the  translator  of 
the  Septuagint, — which  for  the  most  part  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  follows, — has  adopted  the  other.  But  there 
is  nothing  at  all  incongruous,  the  dragging  in  the  mention 
of  staff,  but  it  is  natural  that  the  bed  should  appear  when 
a man  is  dying,  and  the  picture  is  of  the  old  patriarch 
turning  himself  upon  his  bed  in  an  attitude  of  adoration 
and  contemplation,  and,  thinking  of  God,  and  thankful 
that  his  bones  should  not  be  laid  in  the  alien  soil  of  Egypt, 
but  carried  to  the  land  of  his  forefathers.  And  so  I think 


52 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


out  of  these  two  incidents  there  come  two  or  three  im- 
portant lessons.  The  first  of  them  is — looking  at  this  far- 
off  glimpse  into  a life  lived  under  such  diverse  conditions 
and  regulations  to  ours,  that  the  man’s  faith  works  in  such 
a different  fashion  to  what  it  works  with  us.  Looking 
away  into  this  far-away,  strange,  and  unfamiliar  mode  of 
life,  we  learn  first  of  all  to  understand  what  is  the  real 
throbbing,  living  heart  of  that  thing  we  call  religion. 
Here  is  this  man — the  writer  of  this  book  says — exercising 
the  special  Christian  virtue  of  faith.  And  look  how  he 
explains  it.  At  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  he  tells  us 
that  ‘‘  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence 
of  things  not  seen,”  as  if  he  was  explaining  it  as  having 
mainly  reference  to  the  invisible,  to  the  future  world.  But 
notice  that  that  is  not  the  definition  of  faith,  and  that  the 
writer  of  this  letter  does  not  give  it  as  a definition.  He 
gives  it  as  the  two  cases  of  the  operation  of  faith,  not  of 
its  essence,  that  it  enables  a man  to  lay  hold — as  of  a 
living  substance — on  the  things  wh’ch  are  unseen.  That 
is  the  consequence  and  the  effect  of  faith,  it  is  not  faith. 
For  how  was  it  that  these  old  patriarchs  were  able  to  look 
forward  through  all  the  dim  ages,  and  to  call  the  things 
which  were  not  as  though  they  were,  and  to  believe  that 
that  land  was  to  be  theirs  } It  was  because  their  faith  was 
kept — not  with  the  things  unseen  and  hoped  for — but  with 
Him  that  had  promised  the  things  ; and  deep  down 
beneath  the  things  that  they -expected,  lay  the  confidence 
that  they  cherished  in  the  promising  God.  And  so  I call 
you  to  notice  that  wheresoever  the  eye  and  hand  of  faith 
may  be  turned,  the  essence  and  the  heart  of  it  is  the  grasp 
of  the  living  God.  And  secondly  a reliance  on  Him  and 
on  His  word.  On  the  surface,  this  old  chapter  seems  to 
deal  with  faith  as  the  substantiating  and  bringing  near  to  me 
all  the  things  that  are  all  unseen  and  anticipated  ; beneath, 
it  emerges  as  the  confidence  of  the  soul  in  the  promise ; 
and  beneath  that,  it  appears  as  the  confidence  of  the  soul 
in  Him  that  promised.  Let  me  take  a bold  illustration. 
Suppose  a man  said  to  you,  there  is  ;^i,ooo  to  your  credit 
in  a bank.  Well,  you  might  say  that  the  ^^"1,000  was  the 
object  of  your  faith,  but  that  would  only  be  a very  loose 
and  incomplete  way  of  putting  it.  Or  you  might  say 
that  his  word  was  the  object  of  your  faith,  and  I don’t 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


53 


quarrel  with  your  way  of  putting  it.  But  below  the  re- 
liance on  the  word,  there  is  the  reliance  on  the  speaker  of 
the  word,  and  that  in  the  last  analysis,  it  is  neither  the 
gift  promised,  nor  the  promise  of  the  gift,  but  the  promiser 
who  gives  the  gift,  with  which  a man’s  faith  is  to  be  con- 
versant. And  so  you  will  take  this  chapter,  this  grand 
deed-roll  of  heroes  of  the  faith  ; though  at  first  sight  it 
seems  as  if  the  word  was  employed  in  a different  shade 
of  significance  from  that  which  it  usually  occupies  in  the 
Old  Testament,  a little  more  looking  lets  us  see  that  it  is 
the  same  idea  throughout ; and  that  the  language  on 
which  your  salvation  and  mine  is  suspended,  is  simple 
affiance  and  trust  of  our  whole  spirits  in  the  manifested 
God  who  “ spoke  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,”  and 
in  these  last  days  hath  spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son.  He 
Himself  is  the  living  object,  the  only  adequate  object  of  a 
man’s  confidence  and  trust.  And  so  from  this, — if  only 
we  will  rightly  understand  it, — there  comes  forth  this  plain 
thought,  that  however  bright  and  blessed  our  inheritance 
beyond,  that  with  whatsoever  fair  and  substantial  forms 
faith  may  legitimately  people  the  else  unknown  and  soli- 
tary future,  howsoever  bright  and  glorious-^yet  far  less 
bright  and  glorious  than  the  realities  which  they  shadow — 
may  be  the  visions  which  it  conjures  beyond  the  worst 
darkness  beyond  the  grave,  not  this^  but  the  word  of  Him 
who  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light ; and  not  even 
that  word,  but  Him — the  Speaker — in  the  fulness  of  His 
own  infinite  verity,  is  the  object  of  our  faith.  ‘‘I  am  the 
way,  and  the  truth,  and  the  life,”  and  we  obtain  an  inherit- 
ance amongst  them  that  are  sanctified  through  the  faith 
that  is  in  Christ.  And  so  still  further.  I would  have  you 
look  at  a thought  closely  connected  with  this  one  thought 
I have  been  dealing  with,  and  yet  different  from  it,  and 
take  that  unfamiliar  picture  of  a type  of  devoutness  and 
Godly  living,  so  far  removed  by  circumstances,  and  race, 
and  character,  from  our  modern  notion  of  what  a good  man 
is  ; take  it — that  type  of  the  dying  Jacob — as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  fact  of  the  substantial  oneness  and  identity 
of, — call  it  religion,  or  call  it  faith, — in  all  ages,  and  at  all 
stages  of  knowledge  and  culture.  Jacob’s  faith  was  yours 
and  mine.  Jacob’s  creed  was  not.  The  progress  of  God’s 
self-manifestation  and  infinitude  of  wisdom,  and  truth,  and 


54 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


love,  and  knowledge,  lay  all  dark  and  unknown  to  him, 
which  has  been  revealed  to  and  manifested  to  us  ; but  yet, 
with  all  the  variety  in  the  language  that  the  faith  grasped, 
the  faith  that  grasped  it  was  the  same.  And  whether  it 
was  the  God  revealed  partially,  and  yet  adequately,  in 
vision  and  sign  ; or  whether  it  is  the  God  revealed,  not 
completely,  and  yet  so  far  as  human  possibilities  are  con- 
cerned, perfectly,  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  hand  that  it  leaned 
upon  is  the  same.  And  we  look  across  the  ages  away  into 
the  dim  distances  where  life  was  so  different  to  what  it  is 
to-day,  where  laws  of  right  and  wrong  were  so  much  modi- 
fied, in  regard  to  what  they  are  now.  We  look  back  to  the 
fierce  militant  exclusive  religion  of  those  early  days,  and 
beneath  that  we  see  the  very  same  thing  that  binds  men  to 
God  to-day,  and  will  do  beyond  the  end  of  time  ; for  the 
faith  of  earth  is  the  faith  of  heaven,  and  although  at  one 
end  of  the  line  stands  the  world’s  grey  fathers,  with  their 
early,  contracted  creed  ; and  at  the  other  end  may  stand  the 
saints  perfected  in  knowledge,  as  in  purity  and  in  love,  all 
these  are  in  one  line,  and  are  united  to  God  by  one  and 
the  same  faith.  And  Jacob  with  his  faults  and  sins  and 
limitations,  and  you  and  I,  on  whom  the  ends  of  the  earth 
are  come,  journey  on  the  same  path  to  the  same  Father. 
I do  not  need  to  dwell  upon  the  possible  applications  of  a 
thought  like  this,  in  regard  to  our  own  times  and  circum- 
stances, and  the  plea  that  may  be  built  upon  it  for  a far 
wider  construction  of  the  limits  of  God’s  house  and  Christ’s 
kingdom  than  we  are  so  ready  to  impose  upon  the  one  and 
the  other.  The  measure  of  the  temple  and  the  walls  of 
the  New  Jerusalem  is  the  rod  which  comes  from  heaven, 
and  our  measuring  rods  are  not  adequate  to  that  task. 
Only,  let  us  remember,  no  false  and  spurious  liberality 
under  the  guise  of  recognising  an  identity  of  faith  under 
all  varieties  of  manifestation.  You  can  take  the  position  of 
these  Old  Testament  saints,  and,  seeing  you  live  at  a time 
when  so  much  more  has  been  taught  us  than  they  pos- 
sessed, the  faith  that  laid  hold  of  a creed  like  theirs  to-day 
would  not  be  their  faith.  The  faith  that  knits  a man  to 
God  is  a faith  that  accepts  whatsoever  God  the  Lord  hath 
revealed  ; and  so  says,  “ Speak,  Lord  ; for  Thy  servant 
heareth.”  Then  notice  how  this  same  story,  or  these  two 
stories,  which  are  smelted  into  one  illustration  and  instance 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


55 


here,  give  us  also  the  thought  of  the  ennobling  and  refining 
influence  of  this  confidence  in  God,  and  occupation  there- 
fore with  the  unseen  future.  There  is  no  more  significant 
lesson  in  the  whole  Bible  I think  than  the  difference 
between  the  character  of  this  man  Jacob  at  the  beginning 
and  at  the  end  of  his  career.  At  first,  a low,  shifty, 
crafty,  scheming  Jew;  with  material  objects  and  all  manner 
of  quirks  and  meannesses  ever  near  him  ; and  at  the  end, 
all  that  beaten  out  of  him,  and  dignity,  and  simplicity, 
and  contentedness,  and  lofty  elevation,  characterizing  the 
whole  life.  And  how  did  that  serene  and  noble  figure  of 
a green  old  age  with  fulfilled  desires,  and  immortal  hopes  ; 
how  did  that  emerge  from  the  utterances  we  read  about 
in  the  early  chapters  } Sorrow } Yes  and  no.  Discipline 
of  circumstances } Yes  and  no.  Growth,  the  natural 
growth  of  character  in  changing  years } Perhaps.  But 
I think  deeper  than  all  this,  that  promise  that  God  had 
given  to  him  among  His  people  had  sunk  in  his  mind, 
and  that  his  thoughts  and  desires  were  more  and  more 
drawn  outward  and  onward  to  an  unseen  future  ; and 
so  by  degrees  the  earthliness  and  the  cunning,  and  the 
vulpine  nature  of  the  man  dropped  away,  and  w^as  changed 
to  the  dignity,  and  grandeur,  and  statuesque  simplicity, 
and  beauty,  the  outcome  and  influence  of  a life  conver- 
sant with  unseen  hopes  and  with  the  God  that  promised 
them  elevating  the  nature  out  of  all  its  lowness,  and  sin- 
fulness, and  selfishness,  and  setting  it  there  on  a pedestal. 
We  all  admit  theoretically, — whether  we  do  it  practi- 
cally or  not, — that,  given  two  men,  a man  who  has  pur- 
poses, and  hopes,  and  anticipations  for  himself,  or  for 
some  great  cause  for  his  fellows,  running  on  into  the 
future,  a remote  future,  is,  pro  tanto^  so  far  as  that  goes  a 
bigger  man,  a better  man,  a wiser  man,  a stronger  and  a 
holier  man,  than  the  other  man  that  is  living  from  hand  to 
mouth,  and  has  no  purpose  beyond  the  end  of  next  week, 
and  no  hopes  that  go  stretching  out  away  into  the  far 
distant.  And  we  all  admit  that  of  two  men,  the  man 
that  lives,  not  only  for  immediate  things,  but  for  gross, 
palpable,  material  things,  is  a lower  man  than  he  that 
lives  for  the  unseen,  though  far-ofif  earthly  unseen.  That 
the  student,  the  thinker,  and  the  artist,  and  all  men 
that  have  their  delight  in  the  region  of  the  invi.^ible,  are 


56 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


nobler  men  by  far  than  the  contracted  and  animalised 
spirits  that  grovel  on, — I was  going  to  say, — like  dogs 
hunting  for  truffles,  grubbing  along  with  their  noses  to  the 
ground,  only  sniffing  up  the  delights  that  may  be  there. 
Take  the  two  men,  the  man  that  lives  for  to-day  is  a poor 
creature  always  by  the  side  of  the  man  that  lives  for 
to-morrow.  And  the  man  that  lives  for  anything  that  he 
can  put  into  his  pocket,  or  look  at,  or  stow  away  in  his 
senses,  is  a poor  creature  compared  to  the  man  that  lives 
for  anything  that  is  unseen,  even  though  it  be  one  of  the 
things  that  are  unseen  and  temporal.  And  so  high  above 
that  elevation,  and  greater  far  than  the  influence  upon 
any  life  of  narrowness  and  weaknesses  and  trickiness,  is 
the  great  hope  that  drives  a man  onward  to  the  great 
unseen  ideal  that  dwells  only  before  that  inward  eye.  And 
therefore,  you  and  I,  whose  work  is  cast  in  toiling  for  our 
daily  bread  ; working  among  the  transitory  things  of  life, 
have, — to  speak  roughly, — no  other  means  of  getting  the 
counterpoise  to  the  brutalising  influence  of  the  present 
and  the  seen,  except  faith  in  God,  that  makes  us  denizens 
of  another  world,  and  citizens  of  another  country.  I 
believe,  of  course,  that  the  unseen  and  future  objects  which 
Christian  faith  brings  near  a man  are  infinitely  mightier  in 
than  all  the  abstractions,  or  all  the  great  objects  of  human 
pursuit  the  realization  of  which  lies  millenniums  in  advance. 
But  for  the  most  of  men,  you  have  next  to  nothing  else  to 
choose  between  ; and  the  alternative  lies  here  for  most  of 
us, — live  for  the  gross  vulgar  present,  or  live  for  the  majestic 
future,  guaranteed'  to  us  by  the  living  Christ,  and  the  un- 
seen realities  that  are  there.  And  let  us  notice  in  tin’s 
story  how  the  life  of  faith  was  a life  of  growing  nobleness 
and  beauty  ; and  so  take  the  lesson  to  ourselves. 

The  last  thing  I shall  refer  to,  is  that  this  same  incident 
may  set  before  us  the  power  of  this  confidence  or  faith,  in 
the  end  of  life.  I do  not  mean  to  say  as  some  people  are 
disposed  sometimes  to  preach,  that  the  only  way  by  which 
a man  can  die  calmly  is  to  die  a Christian.  God  hath 
ordained  that  the  physical  act  of  dying  is  generally  a calm 
and  easy  act.  So  I am  not  going  to  build  upon  that ; but 
here  is  this  man,  who  has  been  putting  his  heart  on  hopes 
that  are  still  unaccomplished,  hopes  that  have  been  the 
nourishment  and  sustenance  of  his  soul  for  many  and 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


57 


many  a day ; and  he  is  dying,  and  there  does  not  seem  the 
slightest  sign  of  them  being  nearer  ; and  if  anybody  might 
have  laid  down  to  die  and  said,  ‘‘  Well,  my  life  has  all  been 
a failure,  and  a blunder,  and  here  am  I the  victim  of 
unfulfilled  expectations,''  it  was  that  man.  But  instead  of 
that,  he  lays  himself  down  and  says,  ‘‘  I die,  and  God  shall 
be  with  you  ; carry  my  bones  up  with  you,"  and  he  puts 
his  hands  upon  the  heads  of  the  boys  and  says  : They 

shall  be  great  in  the  land  which  God  shall  give  you 
for  a possession.”  And  so  his  confidence  has  rounded  off, 
to  his  own  apprehension,  the  loose,  fragmentary,  and  broken 
life,  into  completeness  and  beauty  ; and  he  felt  that  for 
all  the  past — and  that  comes  ou,t  most  lovelily  in  his  words 
— that  for  all  the  past,  that  had  seemed  so  strange,  so 
perplexing,  so  sad  while  it  was  passing,  there  was  a living 
reason.  He  looks  at  his  son,  and  says,  “And  I did  not 
think  I should  ever  see  your  face  again,  yet  God  hath  let 
me  see  your  boys,”  and  then  he  pats  their  heads  and  says, 
“ Looking  back  here,  I see  God  that  was  my  Shepherd  all 
my  life  long,  the  angel  that  redeemed  me  from  all  evil, — 
bless  the  lads.”  The  past  is  beautiful,  beginning  to  be 
intelligible,  shaping  itself  into  symmetry  and  meaning, 
into  significance  and  mercy,  the  unaccomplished  hopes  are 
still  true  hopes,  his  dear  ones  he  leaves  to  God  ; and  so  he 
says,  “ My  hope  is  strong,  dying  as  it  was  living ; I know 
in  whom  I have  believed,  I know  His  faithful  promise,  I 
know  I shall  share  in  that.”  Let  us  set  our  confidence 
on  the  living  love  of  the  Divine  Christ,  and  then  when  we 
come  to  die,  if  the  life  may  have  been  failure,  and  sorrow, 
and  disappointment,  and  many  sins,  we  may  be  able  to 
look  forward  and  say,  like  that  old  patriarch  prophet — 
“ God’s  promise  shall  be  fulfilled,  I shall  enter  into  the 
rest.’'  By  the  side  of  that  noble  passing  away  of  the  Old 
Testament  hero,  set  the  triumphant  one  in  the  new.  By 
the  side  of  Jacob  the  patriarch  put  Paul  the  apostle;  “I 
have  fought  the  fight,  I have  finished  my  course,  I have 
kept  the  faith  ; henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a crown 
of  righteousness.”  These  lived  and  died  in  faith.  In  that 
faith  may  you  and  I live  and  die. 


58 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


VIII.  The  waters  of  Marah.  Exod.  xv.  23-25. 

And  when  they  ca7ne  to  Marah^  they  could  not  drink  of  the 
waters  of  Marah ^ for  they  were  bitter : therefore  the  name  of  it 
was  called  Marah,  And  the  people  murmured  against  Moses, 
saying.  What  shall  we  di  ink  I And  he  cried  unto  the  Lord ; and 
the  Lord  showed  him  a tree,  which  when  he  had  cast  into  the 
waters,  the  waters  were  made  sweet : there  he  made  for  them  a 
statute  and  an  ordinance,  and  thei  e he  proved  the7uP 

There  is  no  more  dismal  bit  of  country,  perhaps,  in  the 
world  than  that  strip  of  desert  sea-coast  which  goes  by  the 
name  of  the  wilderness  of  Shur,  through  which  the  Israelites 
were  called  upon  to  march  immediately  after  passing  the 
Red  Sea.  Sand  and  gravel,  and  limestone  rock,  all  beaten 
upon  with  the  pitiless  glare  of  the  sun,  full  in  the  eyes  of 
this  caravan  of  fugitives,  as  they  marched  due  south  for 
three  days.  They  had  no  means  of  refreshing  their  needs, 
and  one  can  understand  how  as  the  third  day  came  to  an 
end,  and  the  long  weary  march  was  drawing  to  an  end  too, 
and  the  evening  quietness  came ; how  when  they  saw  away 
on  the  horizon  the  feathered  tips  of  the  palm-trees  that 
told  of  water,  their  drooping  spirits  would  revive,  men 
would  stagger  along  a little  less  apathetically.  And  when 
they  came  to  the  spring  there  was  an  iridescent  scum  on 
the  surface,  and  as  travellers  tell  us  the  very  worst  water  in 
all  the  peninsula  ; and  one  man  tries  and  spits  out  the  first 
mouthful,  and  another  man  tries  but  cannot  manage  it, — 
although  he  is  half-dead  with  thirst  it  won’t  go  down,  and 
they  cannot  drink  the  water ; and  they  call  the  name  of  it, 
with  breaking  hearts,  ‘‘  Marah ! ” And  there  were  the 
little  children  that  had  never  been  accustomed  to  anything 
but  ease  in  Egypt,  and  the  burdened  women  with  their 
kneading  troughs  on  their  shoulders,  and  the  despairing 
fathers,  a crowd  of  fugitives,  and  they  all  turn  upon  Moses, 
and  cry  against  him,  and  Moses  does  the  right  thing.  ‘‘  He 
cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  showed  him  a tree,”  or 
a bit  of  wood,  for  the  word  does  not  necessarily  mean  a 
living  tree  ; and  Moses  puts  it  into  the  water,  and  the 
water  becomes  sweet  ; and,  says  the  narrative,  summing  it 
all  up,  “ there  he  made  a statute  and  an  ordinance,”  that 
thing,  the  bitter  water,  and  the  sweetening  and  the  thirst. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


59 


that  is  the  statute  for  you,  and  an  ordinance  ; “ and  there 
he  proved  them.”  Well,  now  the  first  thing  I want  you  to 
notice,  for  these  last  words  vindicate  us  in  taking  this  story 
to  mean  something  more  than  itself,  as  being  the  embodi- 
ment of  a perpetual  principle  that  applies  all  round  and  all 
ways,  or  in  the  old-fashioned  language  of  the  text,  “ is  a 
statute  and  an  ordinance.”  The  first  thing  I want  you  to 
notice  is  this — Where  is  Marah  ? Close  by  the  Red  Sea. 
That  is  to  say,  cheek-by-jowl  with  the  triumph,  the  first 
stage  in  the  wilderness.  As  soon  as  the  men  got  across 
and  began  their  march,  there  is  a couple  of  days  or  so  at 
the  first  halting  place  to  shake  themselves  together,  and 
get  themselves  into  order  ; and  then  the  next  stage  is  into 
this  wilderness,  this  desert,  and  the  next  halting-place  is 
out  on  that  waterless  plain.  Like  a steamer  going  out  of 
Dover  harbour,  the  one  minute  safe  behind  the  stones,  the 
next  minute  as  soon  as  she  gets  outside  the  pier  the  whole 
surge  of  the  waves  upon  her.  Not  going  sailing  down 
along  some  white  ridge,  like  a ship  going  down  the  Thames 
a long  time  before  it  gets  into  broken  water,  but  out  into 
it  at  once,  one  plunge  and  there  you  are.  Yesterday,  they 
were  crossing  the  Red  Sea,  with  signs  and  wonders,  to-day 
journeying  through  the  waterless  and  dreary  plain  of  sand. 
That  is  to  say,  God’s  road  is  generally  very  near  its  begin- 
ning a bit  of  ugly  country,  that  will  try  a man’s  strength 
and  his  patience.  Good  old  John  Bunyan  saw  that  the 
Slough  of  Despond  was  very  near  the  wicket  gate;  and 
that  is  an  old-fashioned  way  of  putting  an  everlasting  truth, 
that  all  good  things  worth  doing,  all  Christlike  life,  and 
all  high  life  of  every  sort,  is  hard  at  the  beginning.  Gram- 
mar is  always  drudgery,  the  rudiments  are  always  difficult 
to  learn,  the  apprenticeship  is  the  worst  bit  of  it.  We  may 
be  quite  certain  that  we  are  not  on  God’s  road  if  every- 
thing goes  smoothly;  and  as  a rule.  His  paths  are  rough 
and  tangled  at  the  beginning,  and  only  afterwards  do  they 
broaden  out,  and  open  wide  to  us.  The  world  does  the 
opposite  way  ; claps  a bait  upon  the  hook,  entices  men  into 
wrong  paths  by  giving  them  sweetness  at  the  beginning 
and  the  bitter  afterwards. 

“Young  gamblers  always  win,  the  devil  takes  care  of 
that  ! ” says  the  old  proverb.  So  the  man  at  the  feast  said, 
“ when  men  have  well  drunk,  then  that  which  is  worse,  but 


6o  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now/’  So  in  religious 
experience,  when  a man  gets  converted  and  brought  near 
Jesus  Christ,  and  finds  out  the  depth  of  his  own  sin,  and 
the  height  of  God’s  love  .and  mercy,  very  commonly  there 
comes  surging  over  his  heart  not  very  long  afterwards  a 
great  regurgitation,  as  it  were,  of  the  evil  that  he  thought 
he  had  got  rid  of ; and  a season  of  sadness  and  bitterness, 
measured  often  by  the  depth  of  his  former  joy  and  rapture. 
The  crossing  of  the  Red  Sea  yesterday,  Marah  and  its 
bitterness  to-morrow  ; and  even  if  it  is  not  so  always,  there 
is  at  any  rate  the  big  rule  which  is  usually  fulfilled  in  our 
experience,  although  upward  and  onward,  yet  God’s  paths 
have  a trying  bit  very  near  the  beginning,  and  even  for  the 
husbandman  who  laboureth  first  and  is  afterwards  partaker 
of  the  fruit. 

But  that  is  not  all.  Marah,  as  I said,  was  next  door  to 
the  Red  Sea  ; but  Elimjvas  next  door  to  Marah.  Hear 
how  the  story  goes  on  after  that  bit  which  I have  been 
reading  to  you.  “ And  they  came  to  Elim,  where  were 
twelve  wells  of  water,”  one  for  each  tribe  ; “ and  three- 
score and  ten  palm-trees,”  one  for  each  elder,  “ and  they 
encamped  there  by  the  waters.”  How  sweet  the  water, 
how  grateful  the  shade,  how  blessed  the  change  from  yes- 
terday with  the  bitter  saline  filth  standing  in  the  puddle 
there.  Who  can  tell  what  made  the  Elim  waters  sweet } 
Yesterday’s  experience  ! What  made  the  shade  of  the 
palm-trees  so  precious  } The  unsheltered  blaze  of  yester- 
day’s sunshine. 

And  so,  never  fear  ! Our  lives  will  be  carried  out  of  the 
one  into  the  other  in  God’s  own  good  time  ; and  as  sure  as 
any  of  us  may  to-day  be  in  Marah,  to-morrow^  we  shall  be 
in  Elim,  for  there  is  no  human  life  but  is  passed,  by  a 
loving  wise  hand,  through  the  alternations  of  bright  and 
dark,  summer  and  winter,  both  co-operate  to  the  blessed 
harvest.  So^if  any  of  you  are  camping  by  the  side  of  the 
bitter  waters,  do  not  let' your  sorrows  cause  you  to  for- 
get yesterday’s  triumph,  nor  your  hopes  fail  before  you 
grasp  to-morrow’s  rest  and  peace.  That  is  where  Marah 
was. 

\ Now,  the  next  thing  I want  you  to  notice  is,  the  right 
and  the  wrong  way  of  dealing  with  the  bitterness.  They 
“murmured,”  and  “Moses  cried  unto  the  Lord.”  Two 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


6i 


ways  of  using  your  tongues  about  your  troubles  ; on^Js  to 
gruniHe  and  the  oU^  to  pray.  Two  ways  of  speech 
and  thought.  One  is  to  set  our  backs  up  against  what  we 
have  to  carry,  ^nd  the  other  is  to  go  to  God  and  say  — 
“ Help  us,  O Thou  who  hast  laid  this  upon  us ! ” 

“ They  murmured  against  God.”  What!  have  you  for- 
gotten all  His  past  dealings  with  you  this  last  week  al- 
ready ? “ They  murmured  against  God  I ” Why  it  is  only 
two  or  three  days  since  you  were  slaves  in  the  land  of 
Goshen  there  I You  came  out  jubilant.  Where  is  all  your 
jubilation  gone  ? Is  a little  thing  like  this  going  to  turn 
your  thankfulness  into  murmuring,  and  embitter  your  life  ? 
There  are  some  people  that  have  got  a wonderful  habit  ; if 
there  is  one  little  bit  of  cloud  in  their  sky  no  bigger  than  a 
man’s  hand  they  go  talking  about  it  as  if  it  were  a great 
black  thunder  cloud  that  covered  the  whole  zenith  and 
threatened  to  drown  them. 

You  may  always  make  your  life  a pattern  of  brightness 
inlaid  upon  darkness,  or  of  darkness  inlaid  upon  brightness 
just  as  you  like  to  view  God’s  path.  It  is  like  a man  lying 
in  bed,  half  asleep,  he  gazes  through  his  closing  eyes  and 
amuses  himself  with  making  figures  out  of  the  paper,  some- 
times taking  one  of  the  colours  for  a background,  and 
sometimes  another ; and  the  whole  aspect  changes  when 
he  changes  a different  colour  for  his  background. 

And  so  with  your  lives.  You  may  either  grumble  or 
pray  about  them,  one  or  the  other  you  will  certainly  do. 
It  is  the  alternative  for  every  one  of  us.  We  have  thorns 
enough  in  our  pillow,  and  burdens  enough  to  carry.  Let 
us  never  bend  our  backs  till  we  know  the  burden  is  laid  on 
them.  We  have  miles  enough  to  travel.  Never  let  us  start 
until  we  are  quite  certain  that  we  have  got  hold  of  God’s 
hand  to  keep  us  steady,  patient,  and  cheerful,  or  we  shall 
certainly  be  amongst  the  grumblers  and  the  murmurers. 
So  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a choice  ; either  we  shall  be  mur- 
murers against  some  poor  brother  Moses  or  other,  or  else 
look  up  above  the  pigmies,  the  creatures,  and  the  things, 
look  right  away  up  to  Him  and  all  our  murmurings  will 
die,  and  we  shall  go  about  with  piayers  and  not  with 
grumbling  when  once  we  have  got  hold  of  Him. 

Well  now,  the  next  thing  that  is  here  is  the  secret  of 
turning  the  bitter  waters  into  sweet.  It  is  a very  remark- 


62 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


able  form  which  the  miracle  takes  here.  God  concealing 
Himself  behind  Moses;  hiding  Himself,  so  to  speak,  behind 
a material  vehicle  for  His  miraculous  power, — something 
in  the  same  fashion  in  which  our  Lord  fell  Himself,  of 
complying  with  different  customs  and  methods  of  doing 
wonders  ; to  send  one  man  to  bathe  in  the  pool  of  Siloam, 
to  another  using  saliva  in  order  to  heal  him,  a touch  of  the 
finger  to  a third.  And  so  God  here  does  not  do  the  thing 
straight  away,  but  He  puts  in,  between  Himself  the  cause 
and  the  healing  of  the  waters  the  result,  two  links — Moses 
and  a bit  of  wood.  The  reason  I do  not  know  that  we 
can  find  out,  nor  whether  it  would  do  us  much  good  if  we 
could.  But  at  any  rate  there  is  a great  similarity  between 
this  His  first  miracle  of  education  which  He  wrought  for 
these  Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  first  miracle  of 
judgment  wrought  upon  the  Egyptians.  This  is  making 
bitter  water  sweet ; that  was  making  sweet  water — the 
Nile — bitter.  Then,  as  to  the  object,  a bit  of  wood.  This 
sweetening  of  the  waters  was  done  with  a bit  of  wood,  the 
tree,  or  whatever  it  was  that  was  cast  into  the  watei'*;  the 
Nile  was  embittered  by  a bit  of  wood — the  rod  of  Moses. 

There  may  be  a parallel,  I do  not  know  whether  there  is 
or  not,  but  at  any  rate  it  is  worth  noticing.  But  putting 
that  aside,  what  is  the  means  by  which  we  can  turn  all 
the  bitterness  into  sweetness  ? Well,  one  can  scarcely  help 
noticing  this,  and  thinking  of  the  tree  as  shadowing  another 
Tree,  the  Tree  of  Life,  the  Cross,  which  being  put  into  any 
bitterness  turns  it  into  sweetness.  That  is  to  say  according 
to  the  great  words:  “Consider  Him  that  endured  such 
contradiction  of  sinners  against  Himself,  lest  ye  be  wearied 
and  faint  in  your  minds.”  Consider  Him,  and  the  word 
used  there  is  a very  special  one,  it  means  “ consider,”  in 
the  light  of  comparison,  compare  your  sufferings  with 
Christ’s.  “Ye  have  not  yet  resisted  unto  blood,  striving 
against  sin.”  Compare  His  sorrows.  His  patience,  His 
innocence ; think  of  these  things.  “ And  did  my  Lord 
suffer,”  as  good  John  Newton  put  it : — 

“ And  did  my  Lord  suffer, 

And  shall  1 repine  1 

Put  that  Tree  of  Life  into  the  bitterest  fountain  that  we 
have  to  drink,  and  it  becomes  sweet. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


63 


But  there  is  another  side  of  the  same  thought,  the  secret 
of  making  all  bitterness  sweet  is  the  recognition  of,  and 
the  acquiescence  in,  God’s  perfect  loving  will  as  manifested 
in  the  trial.  I do  not  believe  there  is  any  consolation  for 
a great  many  of  the  troubles  that  we  all  have  to  bear 
sooner  or  later  except  that.  A man  stands  beside  his  dead, 
and  people  go  and  pester  him  with  the  threadbare  com- 
monplaces of  conventional  Christian  consolation  ; and  he 
is  ready  sometimes  to  turn  upon  them  with — “Miserable 
comforters  are  ye  all ! ” 

Oh  ! there  is  only  one  thing  that  will  give  ease  to  a m‘an, 
the  loving  will  of  a loving  Father.  Get  that  into  my  heart 
and  then  the  fieriest  showers  will  fall  soft  like  snowflakes, 
cooling  and  refreshing  upon  my  heart,  and  I shall  be  able 
to  bear  it  all.  And  there  is  nothing  else,  nothing  in  all 
the  universe,  that  will  arm  you  and  me  against  “ the 
slings  and  arrows  of  outrageous  fortune,”  and  the  wild  sea 
of  troubles  that  comes  storming  upon  every  man  some  time 
or  other,  except  only  that  one  thing : “ It  is  the  Lord,  let 
Him  do  as  seemeth  Him  good  which  being  cast  into 
the  waters,  the  waters  are  healed. 

And  they  change  their  places.  Marah  becomes  Elim, 
and  the  twelve  wells  open  in  the  wilderness,  and  there  are 
streams  in  the  desert. 

IX.  Balaam.  Num.  xxiv.  ii.  Therefore  now  flee  thou  to 
thy  place  : I thought  to  promote  thee  unto  great  honour  ; hut,  lo, 
the  Lord  hath  kept  thee  back  from  honour P 

Balaam  lived  in  circumstances  sufficiently  unlike  our  own. 
But  human  nature  does  not  change  with  the  change  of 
civilisations,  and  the  human  conscience  face  to  face  with 
truth  and  with  duty  repeats  its  experiences,  its  efforts,  its 
failures,  its  triumphs  in  the  most  distant  climes  and  ages. 
Let  us  endeavour  to  study  this  history,  however  briefly, 
in  a practical  temper,  and  with  a view  to  our  own  im- 
provement. 

I.  Balaam,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  was  a very  eminent, 
he  was  even  an  extraordinary  man.  He  lived  largely 
among  the  wild  race  of  the  Midianites  ; but  he  had 
gifts  and  powers  which,  so  far  as  we  know,  were  entirely 
unshared  by  those  among  whom  he  dwelt. 


64 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


He  was,  first  of  all,  an  observer,  a careful  observer  of 
contemporary  events.  He  was  a man  of  trained  political 
sagacity.  In  his  last  recorded  prophecy  we  see  how  much 
interest  he  felt  in  the  future  of  the  neighbouring  peoples, 
of  the  wild  Kenite  tribes,  of  the  kingdom  of  Amalek,  of 
the  great  monarchies  of  Central  Asia,  of  the  navies  which 
had  already  begun  to  connect  Palestine  with  the  Western 
world.  He  was  one  of  those  men  who  generally  look  on 
at  public  life  rather  than  take  part  in  it,  but  whose  judg- 
ment is  valued  by  men  of  action  as  being  the  product  of 
more  reflection  and  experience  than  their  own.  Balaam 
thus  corresponds  to  a writer  on  history  or  on  politics  among 
ourselves,  who  does  not  go  into  Parliament,  but  whose 
deliberate  opinions  have  more  weight  than  those  of  many 
Parliamentary  speakers.  He  was  consulted,  he  was  allowed 
for,  he  was  obeyed  by  energetic  people  on  all  sides  of  him, 
who  felt  at  least  that  he  saw  farther  than  they  did,  and 
who  were  glad  to  lean  on  his  advice  and  his  directions. 

And  next,  Balaam  was  in  possession  of  a truth  which, 
quite  apart  from  its  awful  and  intrinsic  value,  gives  purpose 
and  meaning  to  a human  life ; he  believed  in  one  God. 
He  lived,  we  know  not  for  how  long,  in  the  Mesopotamian 
city  of  Pethor  ; and  here  he  might  very  well  have  fallen  in 
with  the  descendants  of  those  relatives  of  Abraham  who, 
like  Nahor,  did  not  accompany  Abraham  in  his  migration 
to  Canaan  ; and  from  these  he  may  have  learnt  the  know- 
ledge of  the  one  true  God.  This  great  truth  was  at  the 
basis  of  Balaam's  thought  all  through,  although  he  held 
it  in  an  inconsistent  combination  with  Pagan  practices  of 
soothsaying  and  divination.  He  would  seem  to  have  fallen 
to  a certain  extent  under  the  influence  of  the  degraded 
public  opinion  around  him,  and  so  to  have  endeavoured  to 
combine  his  purer  faith  with  the  popular  heathen  sorcery  ; 
just  as  we  see  people  nowadays  unite  a serious  profession  of 
the  Christian  faith  with  proceedings  and  opinions  which 
it  really  condemns.  However,  Balaam's  knowledge  of  re- 
ligious truth,  so  far  as  it  went,  gave  him  great  power  among 
his  countrymen,  and  it  led  him,  as  was  natural,  to  take  a 
deep  interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the  people  of  Israel.  P>om 
his  recorded  prophecies  it  is  plain  that  he  had  heard  of  the 
promises  made  to  the  Jewish  patriarchs,  that  he  knew 
something  of  the  text  of  the  Jewish  records.  He  uses  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


65 


Holy  Name  itself,  which  was  revealed  to  the  Jews.  He 
must  have  heard  of  the  remarkable  circumstances  attend- 
ing the  deliverance  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt.  Those 
circumstances  had  produced  a profound  impression  on  all 
the  peoples  of  the  south-eastern  seaboard  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  the  adjoining  tribes.  And  while  the  fear  and 
the  dread  of  Israel  fell  on  all  the  Amorite  races,  and  while 
in  particular  Moab  was  sore  afraid  of  the  people  because 
they  were  many,  and  Moab  was  distressed  because  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  Balaam  would  have  been  able  to  study 
the  secret  of  Israel’s  deliverance  from  Egypt,  and  of  Israel’s 
successful  advance  across  the  desert,  through  his  possession 
of  the  key  of  religious  sympathy.  The  heathen  around 
him  saw  in  Israel's  history  the  triumph  of  physical  force, 
the  triumph  of  good  fortune,  the  triumph,  at  the  best,  of 
certain  imaginary  divinities  like  their  own.  Balaam  knew 
enough  to  know  that  the  explanation  lay  far  deeper ; and 
this  knowledge,  at  any  rate  for  a time,  would  have  given 
clearness  and  decision  to  his  judgment,  and  force  and  con- 
sistency to  his  action. 

But,  besides  this,  it  is  clear  that  Balaam  was  endowed  in 
a high  degree  with  the  gift  of  supernatural  prophecy.  Not 
only  could  he  anticipate  the  future  more  rapidly  and  accu- 
rately than  ordinary  men  by  the  trained  use  of  his  natural 
faculties,  but  he  had  also  the  gift  of  prophetic  insight  into 
a future  too  remote,  too  unlike  the  actual  present,  to  be 
anticipated  at  all  by  the  unaided  faculties  of  man.  Of  this 
gift  his  closing  words  to  Balak  afford  one  remarkable  speci- 
men. His  prediction  of  the  Star  and  Sceptre  that  were  to 
arise  out  of  Jacob  is  not  fully  satisfied  by  the  conquests  of 
David,  of  Omri,  of  Hyrcanus,  but  points  to  the  spiritual 
empire  of  Jesus  Christ. 

And  here  we  may  pause  for  a moment  to  take  note  of 
the  fact  that  a stranger  to  Israel,  living  among  a heathen 
people,  himself  practising  heathen  arts,  should  have  been 
thus  distinguished  by  the  possession  of  a great  religious 
and  supernatural  gift.  Israel  alone  was  the  people  of 
Revelation  in  the  ancient  world,  and  yet  here  an  accredited 
organ  of  revelation  is  found  far  beyond  the  frontiers  of 
Israel,  and  his  utterances  are  actually  honoured  with  a high 
place  in  the  sacred  books  of  Israel.  Now,  this  is  in  keep- 
ing with  what  we  find  in  the  whole  course  of  God’s  deal- 

F 


66  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


ings  with  man.  God  makes  governments  ; He  creates  and 
authorises  sacred  institutions  ; He  bestows  the  certificate 
of  His  presence  and  His  approval  here,  and  He  withholds 
it  there.  And  yet  he  is  not  so  bound  by  His  own  rules 
that  they  confine  His  action  besides  compelling  it.  He 
shows  ever  and  anon  that  His  illimitable  and  exuberant 
life  has  outlets  which  lie  beyond  the  bounds  of  consecrated 
system.  Balaam  was  in  one  age  what  Melchisedec  had 
been  in  another,  what  Job  was  in  a third — an  organ  of 
truth  beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  kingdom  of  truth.  And 
when,  in  our  day,  we  see  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Church, 
beyond  the  limits  of  Christianity,  conspicuous  gifts,  if  not 
quite  religious,  or  beautiful  and  even  saintly  characters 
that  throw  into  the  shade  much  that  we  find  nearer  home, 
within  the  enclosure  of  the  sacred  garden  of  the  soul,  this 
does  not  prove  that  God  has  done  away  with  the  ordinary 
rules  and  bounds  of  His  dispensations  of  grace  and  truth  ; 
it  only  proves  this,  that  those  rules  do  not  always  confine 
His  action.  Balaam,  though  not  of  Israel,  was  still  a 
great  prophet ; and  this  supernatural  gift  of  prophecy  en- 
riched the  political  and  religious  knowledge  which  he 
had  acquired  naturally,  enriched  it  with  a new  element  of 
power. 

Now,  with  gifts  like  these,  Balaam  was  naturally  a per- 
son of  great  public  consideration.  Among  the  Midianites 
he  took  rank  even  with  the  princes.  His  fame  spread 
far  and  wide  among  the  neighbouring  peoples,  especially 
among  the  Moabites. 

Balak,  the  king  of  Moab,  was  in  all  probability  himself 
a Midianite,  wh6  had  taken  the  place  of  a native  dynasty 
when  Moab  had  been  weakened  by  the  Amorite  victories  ; 
and  Balak  would  therefore  have  had  opportunities  of  know- 
ing what  was  thought  of  Balaam  elsewhere.  But  men  with 
no  knowledge  or  interest  in  religions  of  their  own  are  apt 
to  make  very  odd  guesses  about  those  who  are  in  any  way 
connected  with  them.  Balak  seems  himself  to  have  looked 
upon  Balaam  chiefly  as  a very  powerful  wizard.  Balaam's 
higher  gifts  would  be  scarcely  intelligible  to  Balak  ; or,  at 
any  rate,  they  were  not  what  Balak  wanted  in  the  existing 
circumstances  of  Moab.  Moab  and  its  king  were  seriously 
alarmed  at  the  steady,  the  persistent  advance  of  the  host 
of  Israel  towards  their  destined  home  in  Canaan.  Israel 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


67 


had  now  passed  the  desert,  and  was  encamped  in  the  plain 
of  Moab,  the  low,  flat  district  along  the  Jordan  and  the 
Dead  Sea,  which  is  fertilised  by  the  brooks  that  run  west- 
ward from  the  Pirathon  Hills.  And  from  these,  their 
neighbouring  heights,  the  Moabites  could  look  over  the 
camp  of  Israel.  There  was  Israel  encamped  in  his  num- 
bers, which  were  probably  exaggerated  by  the  terrors  of 
the  invaded  Moabites  ; and  Balak  longed  to  strike  a swift 
and  decisive  blow.  He  thought  that  if  a great  soothsayer 
like  Balaam  could  be  induced  to  devote  the  Israelites  to 
destruction  by  a solemnly  pronounced  and  public  curse, 
then  there  would  be  no  doubt  about  the  issue  of  the  im- 
pending, the  inevitable  struggle  with  Israel.  “ I wot,'’  he 
said  to  Balaam,  ‘‘  that  he  whom  thou  blessest  is  blessed, 
and  he  whom  thou  cursest  is  cursed.”  In  Balak's  eyes, 
you  see,  Balaam  was  simply  a weapon  of  offensive  warfare. 
He  had  only  to  be  brought  into  position  where  he  might 
bear  upon  the  enemy  in  order  to  produce  results  of  decisive 
importance. 

Balak’s  view  of  Balaam  illustrates  the  way  in  which  in 
all  ages  statesmen  who  are  statesman  and  nothing  else  are 
apt  to  look  upon  religion  and  its  representatives.  They 
see  in  it  only  one  of  the  great  forces  which  modify  and 
control  human  life  ; and  they  desire,  by  whatever  means, 
to  enlist  it  on  the  side  of  the  policy  or  the  Government 
which  they  for  the  moment  represent.  They  do  not  take 
the  trouble  to  understand  what  it  is  in  itself.  They  do  not 
see  that  it  has  obligations,  laws,  principles,  which  cannot 
be  trifled  with,  if  it  is  not  to  forfeit  its  essential  character. 
They  look  at  it,  not  from  within,  but  from  without  ; they 
measure  it,  not  by  its  inspiring  motives,  but  only  by  its 
social  and  popular  results  ; and,  as  a consequence,  they 
often  make  very  great  miscalculations  about  it,  especially 
in  cases  where  the  absence  of  insight  into  the  results  of  a 
religious  creed  upon  human  action,  which  comes  from  their 
lack  of  faith  in  that  creed,  is  not  compensated  for  by  the 
sympathetic  imagination  which  enables  a man  to  put  him- 
self readily  into  the  mental  and  moral  circumstances  of 
those  who  differ  from  him. 

Now,  this  was  Balaam’s  case.  It  was  quite  clear  that 
Balaam.’s  gift  would  be  placed  at  his  disposal  unreservedly 
so  he  thought,  if  he  only  paid  a sufficient  price  for  it.  If 


68 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


a first  bid  did  not  succeed,  then  he  would  make  a second 
and  a larger  bid.  He  did  not  regard  Balaam  as  having  a 
God  or  a conscience  to  consult.  Balaam  was  in  his  eyes 
simply  a merchant  of  preternatural  wares  with  a particular 
useful  commodity  to  dispose  of ; and  the  only  question  was 
to  ascertain  his  price. 

This  mistake  as  to  the  availableness  of  religion  for  any 
political  purpose  that  may  be  immediately  in  view  has  been 
made  in  all  ages  of  the  world's  history.  Saul  made  it  when, 
in  his  off-hand  way,  he  offered  sacrifice  without  waiting  for 
Samuel  ; Jeroboam  made  it,  when  he  tried  to  set  up  a new 
religion  at  Dan  and  at  Beersheba,  which  was  to  supersede 
the  old  duties  of  the  tribes  towards  their  temple  and  their 
priesthood  at  Jerusalem  ; the  princes  of  Judah  made  it, 
when  in  the  last  days  of  the  monarchy  of  Judah  they 
endeavoured  to  force  Jeremiah  to  advocate  what  they 
thought  the  patriotic  policy  of  reliance  on  Egypt  against 
Babylon. 

History  is  studded  with  examples  of  this  mistake,  which 
underlies,  for  instance,  Hume’s  well-known  advocacy  of  an 
established  Church.  Hume  advocates  what  is  oddly  called 
the  establishment  of  religion  by  the  State  ; because,  he 
says,  this  enables  the  State  to  take  the  religious  principle 
well  in  hand,  and  so  to  repress  its  tendency  to  become  a 
fanaticism,  and  to  enlist  it  on  the  side  of  measures  which 
the  State  may  deem  expedient. 

Without  discussing  how  far  this  theory  is  borne  out 
by  experience,  we  may  observe  that  perhaps  the  most 
singular  illustration  of  the  error  in  question  was  afforded 
by  the  first  Napoleon.  When  that  extraordinary  man 
had  conducted  the  campaign  of  Austerlitz  to  a brilliant 
conclusion,  he  addressed  himself,  and  with  his  usual  energy, 
to  religious  questions.  If  at  this  time  he  had  any  creed 
at  all,  it  was  the  creed  of  a half-convinced  Deist.  But  for 
Napoleon  religion  was  always  chiefly  a political  instru- 
ment. He  professed  warm  devotion  to  Mahometanism 
during  the  campaign  of  Egypt  ; he  wrote  to  Pius  VII.  as 
a devoted  son  of  the  Roman  Church,  as  a second  Charle- 
magne. Napoleon  then,  in  1806,  thought  that  his  dynasty 
would  be  safer  if  the  duty  of  devotion  to  himself  and 
his  dynasty  could  be  introduced  into  a catechism  which 
should  be  used  in  all  the  dioceses  of  France  ; and  accord- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


69 


ingly,  under  the  head  of  the  Fifth  Commandment,  a little 
political  treatise — for  such  in  effect  it  was — was  framed 
in  the  shape  of  question  and  answer,  in  which  children 
were  told  that  they  must  obey  the  General  who  had 
recently  suppressed  the  Republic  by  force,  who  had  re- 
cently murdered  the  poor  Bourbon  prince  that  had  fallen 
into  his  hands,  and  this  under  pain  of  eternal  condemna- 
tion. Christianity  owes  all  the  support  that  she  can  give  to 
existing  Governments  ; but  this  general  principle  may  be 
pressed  to  untenable  lengths  in  particular  cases.  Napoleon's 
catechism  was  criticised,  it  was  protested  against,  it  was 
slightly  modified,  but  as  a whole  it  was  received,  it  was 
taught  in  all  the  French  dioceses  for  eight  years,  that  is, 
until  the  peace.  But  acceptance  of  such  a document  as 
this  cost  the  French  clergy  their  moral  influence  ; and 
Napoleon  lived  too  entirely  outside  the  sphere  of  con- 
science to  understand  that,  by  carrying  his  point  against 
them,  he  had  done  his  best  to  destroy  that  very  power 
whose  support  he  was  anxious  to  secure. 

To  return.  Balak  set  himself  to  work  to  enlist  Balaam's 
gifts  and  powers  on  the  side  of  Moab  against  Israel.  First, 
a deputation  carrying  the  rewards  of  divination,  the  price 
which  was  to  be  paid  for  the  public  curse  which  Balaam 
was  to  pronounce,  went  to  him  and  failed.  It  was  followed 
by  a second  deputation  composed  of  much  more  influential 
people,  and  promising  Balaam  very  great  honour  if  he 
would  comply  with  Balak’s  request.  In  the  end  this  depu- 
tation succeeded  so  far  as  to  induce  Balaam  to  go  back 
with  it  to  Balak. 

II.  Here  we  are  face  to  face  with  a difficult  question — 
the  real  character  of  Balaam. 

This  subject  was  much  discussed  in  the  ancient  Christian 
Church,  and  there  were  two  very  different  opinions  about 
it.  On  the  one  hand,  Balaam  was  regarded  by  St.  Augus- 
tine and  others  as  a thoroughly  bad  man,  as  a devil’s 
prophet,  who  was  compelled  by  God,  against  his  will,  like 
the  demoniac  in  the  Gospel,  to  utter  truths  for  which  he 
had  no  heart.  On  the  other  hand,  St.  Jerome  and  others 
considered  Balaam  a good  man  in  the  main  and  a prophet 
of  God,  who  fell  through  yielding  to  the  temptations  of 
avarice  and  ambition. 

The  truth  probably  lies  somewhere  between  the  two 


70 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


opinions.  Balaam  was  a mixed  character,  and  the  real 
problem  that  has  to  be  dealt  with,  as  we  read  his  history 
with  a practical  object,  is  to  discover,  if  we  can,  the  ingre- 
dients of  the  proportions  of  the  mixture. 

On  the  one  hand,  Balaam  was  a man  with  a clear  idea 
of  duty  based  on  a certain  knowledge  of  God.  He  knew 
enough  about  God  to  feel  that  when  there  was  no  mistake 
about  God’s  will  it  must  be  obeyed,  if  only  for  reasons  of 
prudence.  He  knew  enough  of  God’s  dealings  with  Israel 
to  fear  to  trifle  with  God’s  plain  commands. 

When  he  was  asked  by  Balak  to  curse  Israel,  he  did  not 
answer  the  question  without  first  asking  God  for  guidance  ; 
and  when  he  was  told  by  God  that  he  must  not  accept  the 
invitation,  he  at  once  declined.  ‘‘  The  Lord  refuseth  me 
leave  to  go  with  you.”  When  the  invitation  was  renewed, 
he  was  equally  decided.  ‘‘  If  Balak  would  give  me  his 
house  full  of  silver  and  gold,  I cannot  go  beyond  the  word 
of  the  Lord  my  God,  to  do  less  or  more.”  He  only  went 
at  last  when  he  had,  as  he  thought,  satisfied  himself  that 
God  permitted  him  to  do  so. 

And  Balaam’s  sense  of  duty  is  not  less  observable  when 
he  had  joined  Balak.  Balak  naturally  thought  that  if 
Balaam  once  came,  there  would  be  no  further  difficulty. 
But  Balaam  was  careful  to  explain  at  once  that  he  was  not 
at  all  free  to  say  just  what  he  or  Balak  might  wish.  ‘‘  Lo, 
I am  come  unto  thee.  Have  I now  any  power  at  all  to 
say  anything?  The  word  that  God  putteth  in  my  mouth, 
that  shall  I speak.”  And  so  it  happened.  First  there  was 
a sacrifice  at  the  royal  residence  of  Kirjath-huzoth  ; and 
then  the  next  day  Balaam  was  solemnly  taken  to  Hamath- 
Baal,  a high  hill  connected  with  the  Baal-worship,  and 
commanding  a full  view  over  the  camp  of  Israel,  and  there 
God  met  him,  apparently  condescending  to  manifest  His 
will  even  through  the  pagan  auguries  which  Balaam  con- 
sulted, and  Balaam  blessed  Israel  altogether.”  And  then, 
when  Balak  remonstrated,  Balaam  asked,  “ Must  I not 
take  heed  to  speak  that  which  the  Lord  hath  put  in  my 
mouth  ?”  and  Balak  probably  thought  that  there  was  some 
sinister  influence  at  work  in  the  spot  or  in  the  air,  or  that 
Balaam  had  been  unduly  impressed  with  the  imposing 
spectacle  of  the  entire  camp  and  host  of  Israel ; and  so 
they  moved  to  another  point  nearer  the  encampment  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


71 


Israel,  but  commanding  a much  less  complete  view  of  it, 
as  it  would  have  been  apparently  shut  out  from  view  by  a 
projecting  spur  of  Mount  Pisgah.  And  here  again  the 
altars  are  built,  and  the  sacrifices  offered,  and  the  auguries 
consulted  ; and  Balaam  prophesied,  and  again  he  cele- 
brated the  strength  and  the  assured  victory  of  Israel  under 
the  Divine  protection.  There  was,  he  said,  no  enchant- 
ment against  Jacob;  there  was  no  divination  against  Israel 
**  Behold,  I have  received  a commandment  to  bless,  and  I 
cannot  reverse  it.’’  And  Balak  was  in  despair — just  as  a 
man  might  be  who  has  set  a machine  in  motion  whose  work- 
ing he  is  totally  unable  to  guide  or  to  control;  he  begged 
the  prophet  neither  to  curse  Israel  at  all  nor  to  bless  it 
at  all  ; silence  would  be  better  than  these  unlooked  for 
blessings  ; but  Balaam  is  still  true  to  his  text : “ Told 
I not  thee  saying.  All  that  the  Lord  sayeth,  that  must  I 
do?” 

One  more  trial,  Balak  thought,  might  yet  be  made. 
Balaam  was  taken  by  Balak  to  a spot  celebrated  then, 
celebrated  afterwards,  further  north, — Baal-Peor,  which 
looked  over  the  waste  valley  below,  and  in  which  the 
Moabite  king  fondly  hoped  that  the  prophet  might  at 
last  feel  himself  able  to  curse  Israel  ; and  the  altars  are 
built,  and  the  sacrifices  offered,  but,  instead  of  again  con- 
sulting the  auguries,  Balaam  looked  out  over  the  camp 
of  Israel,  which  was  still,  though  in  the  distance,  within 
his  view  ; and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came  upon  him  ; and 
this  time  the  blessing  was  more  explicit  than  ever  before : 
all  the  pictures  which  are  most  welcome  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  burning  desert — the  well-watered  valley,  the  fertile 
garden,  the  spice-bearing  aloe,  the  noble  cedar — are  sum- 
moned in  his  poetry  to  describe  the  assured  prosperity  of 
Israel.  Israel’s  monarch  was  to  be  higher  than  the  power- 
ful chief  of  the  Amalekites,  higher  than  Agag  ; to  bless 
Israel  was  to  be  certainly  blessing  ; to  curse  Israel  was  to 
be  certainly  cursing.  And  here  Balak’s  dismay  gave  way 
to  indignation.  “Therefore  now,”  he  said,  “flee  thou  to 
thy  place  ; I thought  to  promote  thee  unto  great  honour ; 
but,  lo,  the  Lord  hath  kept  thee  back  from  honour.”  And 
again  Balaam  reminded  Balak  that  he  had  warned  him  of 
what  might  happen  ; and  then  he  proceeded  to  utter  a 
closing  prophecy,  which  foretold  the  conquest  of  Moab 


72 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


itself  by  Israel,  and  the  history  of  the  other  neighbouring 
peoples,  and  above  all,  the  appearance  of  the  Star  of 
Jacob,  under  Whom  Israel  was  to  advance  to  the  spiritual 
dominion  of  the  world. 

Throughout  these  circumstances  Balaam  apparently 
speaks  and  acts  as  a man  who  has  a law  of  duty  clearly 
before  him,  and  who  courageously  obeys  it.  Balak  was 
right  in  saying  that  the  Lord  had  kept  him  back  from 
honour.  Whatever  earthly  wealth  or  consideration  was  in 
store  for  him  at  the  court  of  Moab,  this  he  forfeited  alto- 
gether by  his  persevering  obedience  to  the  voice  of  God. 
Self-sacrifice  is  always  respectable,  and  Balaam  had  his 
share  in  it.  For  the  moment  he  might  almost  seem  to 
rank  with  prophets  and  with  apostles,  and  in  that  distant 
age,  and  according  to  his  measure,  to  anticipate  the  reward 
of  those  great  promises  of  the  Gospel,  ‘‘  Whosoever  hath 
left  father,  or  mother,  or  lands,  or  wife,  or  children  for  My 
sake,  shall  receive  an  hundredfold,  and  shall  inherit  ever- 
lasting life.'' 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  this  devotion  to  duty  was  clearly 
accompanied  by  another  characteristic  which  explains  why 
Balaam  was  really  an  object  of  God's  displeasure,  and  why 
he  came  to  a bad  end.  Balaam,  you  remember,  when  he 
was  first  asked  by  Balak  to  come  and  curse  Israel,  referred 
the  question  to  God  in  prayer,  learned  that  he  ought  not 
to  go,  and  accordingly  refused  to  go.  This  ought  to  have 
been  enough  for  his  guidance  afterwards.  But  when 
Balak  made  a second  application,  Balaam,  after  first  of 
all  declining  it,  allowed  himself  to  treat  the  question  as 
still  open,  and  he  consulted  God  again.  And  then  God 
answered  him  again,  but  answered  him  according  to  the 
desire  of  his  heart,  and  bade  him  go.  He  did  go,  and 
God's  anger  was  kindled  because  he  went,  and  as  he  went 
on  his  journey  he  saw  the  angel  of  the  Lord  standing  in 
the  way,  and  his  sword  drawn  in  his  hand. 

- How  are  we  to  explain  this  apparent  inconsistency  be- 
tween the  Divine  command  to  go  and  the  Divine  anger  at 
Balaam's  obedience  } Surely,  by  saying  that  the  second 
answer  of  God  to  Balaam's  inquiry  was  a reflection,  not  of 
God's  will,  but  of  Balaam's  secret  wish.  There  is  such  a 
thing — let  us  take  note  of  it — as  the  creation  of  a false 
conscience.  We  may  wish  that  a particular  line  of  con- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


73 


duct  might  be  our  duty,  until  we  persuade  ourselves  that 
it  is  really'  our  duty,  that  it  is  really  what  God  would 
have  us  to  do.  If  instead  of  acting  upon  right  when  we 
know  it  to  be  right,  we  pray  for  further  knowledge  of  duty, 
we  may  pray  ourselves  into  belief  that  wrong  itself  is 
right.  How  easily  this  may  be  done,  how  unobserved  and 
secret  the  process  of  doing  it  may  be,  is  only  too  apparent 
to  any  man  who  keeps  his  eyes  about  him  in  our  daily 
life.  Some  of  the  worst  things  that  have  been  done  in 
human  history  have  been  done  by  persons  who  have  acted 
on  what  was  at  the  time  to  them  a sense  of  duty.  But 
then  the  sense  of  duty  has  been  a perverted  sense ; and 
the  perversion  has  not  seldom  arisen  from  the  secret  dis- 
position to  read  human  and  personal  wishes  into  Divine 
laws  and  rules. 

When  we  are  once  clear  about  a particular  portion  of 
God’s  will  we  ought  not  to  reconsider  it  unless  some  en- 
tirely new  facts  come  to  light,  which  plainly  make  a real 
difference  in  the  case  before  us.  In  Balaam’s  case,  the 
problem  of  duty  was  exactly  the  same  on  the  occasion  of 
the  second  application  that  was  made  to  him  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  first.  The  persons  who  urged  it  were  more 
important,  the  bribe  that  was  offered  was  higher  ; but  this 
did  not  for  a moment  affect  the  hard  question  of  duty. 
To  reopen  that  question  was  to  play  a trick  with  con- 
science ; and  one  such  trick  deliberately  played  with  con- 
.science  may  easily  be  fatal.  Balaam’s  sense  of  duty  did 
not  give  way  all  at  once.  We  have  seen  how  once,  twice, 
and  again  he  held  out  against  the  inducements  and  the 
importunities  of  Balak,  and  uttered  the  unwelcome  truth 
which  God  put  in  his  mouth.  But,  for  all  that,  his  moral 
constitution  was  sapped  by  a fatal  wound  ; his  notion  of 
duty  was  clearly  not  what  he  could  discover  to  be  God’s 
will,  but  only  what  God  would  not  allow  him  to  ignore. 
It  was,  as  we  say,  a minimising  rule  of  duty;  and,  wherever 
this  is  the  case  with  a man,  a moral  catastrophe  on  a great 
scale  is  always  possible.  Balaam,  the  author  of  some  of 
the  most  lofty  and  inspiring  sayings,  of  the  most  majestic 
prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  ended  by 
suggesting  that  a hideous  temptation  to  iniquity  should  be 
placed  in  the  way  of  the  people  whose  moral  superiority 
he  had  himself  acknowledged  ; and  he  died  fighting  against 


74 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


the  cause  whose  victory  he  had,  at  the  cost  of  great  per- 
sonal sacrifice,  proclaimed  as  certain. 

III.  There  are  three  considerations  which  the  history 
suggests. 

The  ministry  of  grace  and  truth  to  others  may  be  quite 
independent  of  the  personal  character  of  the  minister. 
Truth  and  grace  are  God’s  gifts,  not  man’s.  Man  is  at 
best  an  organ  of  the  Divine  utterances,  the  channel 
through  which  the  Divine  influence  flows.  God  does  not 
put  Himself  in  the  hands  of  His  human  instruments  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  make  His  purpose  of  mercy  or  of 
illumination  depend  on  the  personal  consistency  of  His 
ministers  with  the  commission  they  bear.  The  profession 
of  a prophet,  or  a priest,  or  a clergyman,  is  one  thing  ; his 
vocation  is  another.  The  first  is  conferred  in  the  Church 
of  Christ  by  a valid  ordination  ; it  is  independent  of  the 
character  of  the  recipient.  The  second  is  the  antecedent 
and  inward  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  recesses  of  the 
character,  and  it  alone  brings  the  character  into  harmony 
with  the  work  and  the  powers  that  fall  upon  the  outward 
benediction  of  Christ  in  His  Church. 

Balaam  is  a very  ancient  and  awful  instance  of  the 
profession  of  a prophet  wielded  by  a man  who  had  no 
true  inward  vocation  to  prophecy.  And  Church  history 
records  many  an  example  of  men  who  have  taught  or 
worked  with  conspicuous  success,  yet  have  failed  in  the 
elements  of  personal  devotion  to  Him  whose  livery  they 
wear.  As  to  their  future  our  Lord  has  in  merciful  severity 
warned  us  : “ Many  will  say  to  Me  in  that  day.  Lord, 
Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy  name,  and  in  Thy 
name  cast  out  devils,  and  in  Thy  name  done  many  won- 
derful works  1 and  then  will  I say  to  them,  I never  knew 
you.” 

Another  consideration  is,  how  possible  it  is  to  know  a 
great  deal  about  the  truth,  to  make  sacrifices  for  it,  to 
be  kept  back  from  honour  out  of  deference  to  its  high  re- 
quirements, and  yet  to  be  at  heart  disloyal  to  it.  When 
Balaam  returned  to  Midian,  he  probably  reflected,  as  men 
speak,  with  just  pride  on  the  manner  in  which  he  had 
conducted  himself.  He  had  been  exposed  to  a sharp 
trial  ; he  had  stood  it  well  ; he  had  resisted  flattery, 
bribery,  force  ; he  had  been  as  good  as  his  word  ; what 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


75 


had  he  not  resigned  at  the  call  of  duty  ? What  had 
he  not  achieved  for  the  cause  of  truth  ? And  yet  below 
all  this  there  was  the  question,  the  fundamental  question, 
as  to  the  rectitude  of  his  secret  will.  The  surface  obe- 
dience might  cover,  it  did  cover,  an  inward  rebellion.  There 
are  in  every  generation  lives  like  his.  We  seem  to  be 
gazing  on  the  rosebud,  perfect  in  its  form  and  in  its  colour, 
but  a worm  is  eating  away  the  petals,  and  they  will  pre- 
sently wither  and  fall. 

Lastly,  the  true  safeguard  against  such  a fate  as  Balaam’s 
is  the  love  of  God.  Love  is  the  salt  which  alone  in  this 
poor  human  nature  of  ours  saves  the  sense  of  duty  from 
decomposition.  Had  Balaam  loved  God  besides  knowing 
Him,  he  would  not  have  asked  for  guidance  a second 
time.  One  intimation  of  the  will  of  those  whom  we  love 
is  enough,  always  enough,  for  a sincere  affection.  Love 
rejoices  to  obey,  not  because  obedience  is  welcome  to  self, 
but  because  obedience  is  agreeable  to  him  who  is  the 
object  we  love.  Love  rejoices  in  opportunities  of  resisting 
self ; for  love  in  its  very  essence  is  the  renunciation  and 
the  gift  of  self,  for  the  sake  of  another,  to  another,  whether 
God  or  man. 

Let  us  pray  God  that  this  great  gift  may  be  poured 
into  our  hearts  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  that  loving  Him  above 
all  things  we  may  obtain  His  promises,  which  indeed 
throw  into  the  shade  all  earthly  objects,  which  exceed  all 
that  we  can  desire. 

H.  P.  L. 


X.  Joshua.  Deut.  xxxIv.  9.  And  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun 

was  full  of  the  spirit  of  wisdom  ; for  Moses  had  laid  his  hands 
upon  hhn  : and  the  children  of  Israel  hearke7ied  unto  him^  and 
did  as  the  Lord  co7nmanded  MosesP 

Joshua  was  selected  to  finish  the  work  of  Moses;  and  it 
was  of  the  first  importance  that  the  ideas,  even  in  this 
remote  era,  of  Moses  should  be  continued,  and  that  the 
whole  spirit  of  his  work  should  be  promulgated.  We  may 
be  sure  that  part  of  the  endeavour  of  Moses’  life  was  to 
secure  this.  “Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  was  full  of  the  spirit 
of  wisdom  ; for  Moses  had  laid  his  hands  upon  him.”  He 


76 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


had  received  instruction  from  Moses.  It  was  not  done  in 
a hurry,  but  through  forty  years,  and,  therefore,  it  lasted. 
It  will  not  do  to  teach  a man  or  nation  hurriedly.  We 
are  disappointed  sometimes  because  our  thoughts,  clear  to 
ourselves,  are  not  clear  to  others,  or  if  our  children  do  not 
understand  the  thought  we  have  been  giving  them.  Do 
not  trouble  yourselves  about  that ; go  on,  if  you  believe 
what  you  are  saying,  and  after  forty  years  you  will  perhaps 
make  men  who  will  continue  your  work.  They  will  be 
worth  the  making.  The  excitable  ones  who  rush  into 
excitement  about  you,  will,  when  the  time  of  difficulties 
comes,  fall  away.  They  are  not  rooted,  and  when  the  sun 
of  opposition  shines  they  wither  away.  Moses  made  a 
firm,  fixed  man  of  his  follower,  because  he  worked  on  him 
for  many  years. 

Mark,  Joshua  was  not  a man  like  Moses  ; on  the  contrary, 
Joshua’s  nature  was  one  entirely  different  from  his  own — 
a man  whose  genius  was  for  war  and  not  for  law.  Look- 
ing at  himself  through  Joshua  he  saw  his  own  faults  in  a 
different  manner.  That  was  wise ; and  in  truth  the  one 
thing  Moses  cared  for  was  the  thought,  not  the  form,  the 
eternal  thought  which  came  from  God.  This  course  was 
wise,  it  was  prophetic.  The  thoughts  Moses  gave  to  the 
people  were  to  be  continued  under  different  circumstances. 
They  were  to  be  continued  during  almost  incessant  war, 
and  next  in  the  national  sentiment ; and  he  took  care 
they  should  be  cultivated  and  impelled  in  the  mind  of  a 
warrior. 

And  the  results } Some  things  are  kept  like  one  by 
their  unlikeness  to  each  other  ; respect  and  wonder  and 
loving  curiosity  kindling  respect  and  wonder  and  loving 
curiosity,  and  thus  kindling  themselves  together.  That  was 
the  friendship  of  these  two  men  ; and  it  was  the  foundation 
of  Joshua’s  education  for  his  work.  The  sketch  I have 
given  you  is  full  of  lessons  for  us,  lessons  I can  only  indi- 
cate. If  any  one  wants,  and  you  have  anything  to  give 
them,  do  not  neglect  them  because  they  are  of  a different 
nature  to  you.  Dissimilarity  of  nature  may  be  the  one 
thing  needed  in  order  to  carry  on  your  thoughts  afterwards 
in  dissimilar  circumstances  from  those  which  surround  you. 
It  pleases  a man’s  vanity  to  be  reflected  by  his  fellows  ; but 
you  will  be  foolish  if  you  accept  it.  Your  work  given  back 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


77 


to  you  by  reflection  will  be  spoilt.  It  would  stagnate  first 
and  then  be  utterly  spoilt  Seek  for  those  to  take  your 
thoughts  who  have  life  in  themselves,  who  will  work  their 
thoughts  into  yours,  and  who  will  give  them  new  clothes  in 
their  own  minds.  For  the  one  thing  to  be  cared  for  and 
to  secure,  in  truth,  is  the  idea,  and  not  its  clothes.  Of 
course  you  make  the  clothing,  but  the  tendency  is  to  dwell 
too  much  upon  the  clothing  and  to  forget  the  truth  itself. 
Do  not  be  betrayed  through  vanity  or  the  applause  of 
men  into  that  deadly  error.  Desire  that  the  thought  you 
possess  or  the  truth  you  tell  has  new  clothing  put  upon  it 
through  every  change  of  circumstance ; but  if  you  keep  old 
clothes  upon  it,  the  thought  gets  useless  because  of  the 
clothing,  and  by-and-by  your  thought  that  you  prized  so 
is  thrown  on  the  dust-heap  until  some  one  comes  by  and 
finds  it,  and  the  old  clothing  is  .stripped  off ; and  when  the 
old  garments,  all  rotted,  are  taken  off,  then  the  thought  is 
a beautiful  thing,  and  the  finder  reclothes  it  again  for  man- 
kind. Thus  take  care,  like  Moses,  that  you  have  some  one 
to  give  the  truth  to  who  will  put  a different  clothing  upon 
it ; like  Christ,  who  gave  His  ideas  to  twelve  men,  all 
different  in  mind,  so  that  tiiere  might  be  diversities  of 
opinion,  differences  of  opinion,  but  the  same  truth  in  all. 

So  far  for  the  stating  of  the  friendship  and  the  education 
between  Joshua  and  Moses.  How  does  Joshua  first  appear 
before  us?  As  a warrior.  He  keeps  that  place  till  near 
the  end.  He  stands  forth  as  the  very  spirit  of  war  from 
the  time  when  he  stands  on  the  mountain  side  and  cries, 
“There  is  the  noise  of  war  in  the  camp.“  The  very 
war  cry  stirred  him,  and  gave  birth  to  that  terror-giving 
shout  with  which  Israel  always  rushed  to  battle.  He 
recalls  the  memory  of  one  of  the  Greek  heroes.  We  see 
himi  in  ambush  and  then  turning  like  a lion  upon  the  foe  to 
destroy.  We  see  him  spear  in  hand  calling  upon  the  sun 
to  stay  and  upon  the  moon  to  hold,  while  the  pursuing 
host  avenged  their  enemies — a splendid  image  of  wild  war, 
and  he  is  its  centre  and  inspiration.  The  career  of  battle, 
of  which  this  was  the  last,  began  almost  immediately  after 
the  exodus  ; more  than  forty  years  before  this  time  the 
battle  with  Anak  took  place.  Then  began  Joshua’s  training. 
No  one  can  help  seeing  that  Joshua’s  temptation  was  to 
feel  that  it  was  through  his  genius  Israel  won.  It  was 


78 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


not  without  reason,  then,  that  the  story  makes  Moses  take 
him  up  the  mountain,  and  while  he  looked  into  the  dark- 
ness to  leave  Joshua  on  the  outskirts.  That  was  enough 
to  take  out  of  the  man  everything  but  his  own  sense  of 
littleness.  What  overwhelming  awe  was  his,  those  of  us 
who  have  been  alone  upon  the  mountain  or  upon  the  sea 
when  a mighty  storm  was  raging,  may  conjecture.  Then 
are  we  impressed  with  a deep  conviction  of  God’s  presence. 
So  also  was  the  lesson  of  humility  learned  by  Joshua  when 
upon  the  mountain.  It  was  a lesson  for  life.  No  man 
thereafter  could  more  undividedly  carry  out  the  idea  that 
all  the  success  was  God’s  alone. 

The  next  step  in  his  training  was  to  learn  how  to  obey, 
wherefore  he  became  the  servant,  the  daily  attendant  of 
Moses.  He  learnt  the  duties  which  should  belong  to  him 
as  a leader,  through  being  the  personal  assistant  of  the 
leader.  And  we  see  why.  He  did  this,  not  because  it  gave 
him  a name,  but  because  he  needed  out  of  his  simple  heart 
to  express  his  love  for  his  master  in  delighted  service. 
That  is  the  very  best  in  the  world  that  can  happen  to  a 
man  who  has  in  after  life  to  rule  and  manage  others,  who 
had  such  work  as  Joshua  had  to  do.  It  teaches  him  how 
to  rule,  the  things  that  must  be  done  if  rule  is  to  be  suc- 
cessful. It  teaches  that  the  truest  service  is  that  done 
through  love,  that  the  ruler’s  life  must  be  such  as  to  win 
love  and  conquer  human  affection,  and  that  this  is  the 
true  power  of  the  governor.  It  was  a lesson  easily  learned 
by  Joshua. 

It  seems  that  this  teaching  of  him  to  obey  and  to  be 
humble  went  even  still  further,  and  that  he  was  taken  away 
from  being  a war  leader.  We  do  not  see  him  mentioned  in 
the  succeeding  wars  ; he  stops  behind  with  Moses.  This-  is 
curious.  It  makes  us  think  of  the  wonderful  ways  of  God 
for  him.  He  was  not  only  to  be  a warrior,  but  was  to 
guide  the  organization  of  the  new  national  sentiment ; the 
founding  of  a government.  He  was  to  stay  with  Moses 
and  learn  how  it  was  to  be  done,  to  make  friends  with  the 
other  leaders,  with  the  other  advisers  of  himself  afterwards. 
Therefore  he  was  now  to  lay  aside  his  special  type  of  work 
for  the  time. 

Again,  had  he  alone  led  the  host  he  might  have  been 
jealous  of  any  one  afterwards  coming  near  his  glory.  He 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


79 


was  therefore  kept  in  the  background  for  a time.  That 
was  an  excellent  lesson  ; he  knew  the  stuff  of  the  men  he 
had  to  command,  and  he  lost  all  envy  and  jealousy  of 
others.  He  was  willing  to  give  others  their  due,  and  to 
consider  himself  one  hero  among  many.  We  read  in 
Numbers  that  he  had  been  jealous  with  regard  to  two 
prophets,  and  had  exhibited  the  spirit  of  a martinet.  This 
would  have  been  fatal  to  his  success.  As  it  was,  Joshua 
got  rid  of  all  his  jealousy  and  martinet  spirit.  Not  one  of 
the  complaints  such  as  we  find  against  Moses  seems  to  have 
been  made  against  him. 

What  a lesson  is  this  not  to  be  exclusive  to  those 
objects  for  which  you  have  not  a special  genius  ; to  retire 
from  those  things  you  do,  or  think  you  do,  so  well,  in 
order  to  learn  the  other  side  of  things  a little  ; to  balance 
and  steady  your  powers,  and  to  do  that  because  you  have 
met  some  one,  like  Moses,  whose  qualities  you  think  higher 
than  your  own.  This  will  do  wonders  for  your  character, 
will  check  the  evil  and  balance  the  good  of  your  character  ; 
enable  you  to  see  others  do  well  the  very  things  you  think 
you  do  well,  and  help  you  to  see  this  without  jealousy  or 
opposition.  It  delights  you  now  to  find  men  excelling  in 
your  own  special  business,  for  you  care  now  not  for  your 
own  fame  in  the  thing  for  which  you  have  a genius,  but  for 
the  beauty  of  the  thing  itself.  Self  has  been  wrought  out  of 
you.  “Would  to  God,'’  you  say,  “all  men  were  musicians 
and  poets,"  because  it  is  music  and  poetry  you  care  for, 
and  not  your  own  reputation.  That  is  a beautiful  temper ; 
it  is  the  highest  temper  to  which  an  artist  can  arrive. 
Though  Joshua  was  removed  from  generalship  for  a time, 
he  was  learning  an  invaluable  lesson. 

He  was  sent  out  with  eleven  others  to  survey  the  land  in 
preparation  for  invasion.  With  the  sending  him  into  the 
land  was  linked  his  future  work  as  conqueror  of  the  land. 
Moses  changed  his  name.  The  new  name  enshrined  his 
destiny, — a prince,  a saviour.  It  was  a kind  of  baptism  of 
the  man.  Henceforth  he  knew  what  he  had  to  do.  It  was 
a wonderful  thing  to  have  this  new  tenant  in  his  heart  ; 
and  the  change  of  name  was  but  a faint  symbol  of  the 
marvellous  change  within  him.  Just  imagine  as  he  went 
into  Canaan,  the  intensity  of  his  life.  He  was  to  conquer 
the  land  for  the  sake  of  the  people,  and  the  thought  must 


8o 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


have  impressed  him  and  given  a new  life  to  every  act  of 
his  character.  And  it  is  delightful  to  picture  to  oneself  the 
feelings  that  must  have  filled  him  as  he  went  on  day  by 
day  with  the  rest  of  the  spies  over  the  fields  and  villages 
and  cities  of  the  land  he  was  to  win,  and  where  his  fathers 
long  ago  had  lived  and  suffered  and  died,  and  which  he 
was  permitted  by  God  to  conquer  again. 

Full  of  enthusiasm  he  came  back,  one  faithful  com- 
panion with  him  sharing  in  his  excitement  and  courage. 
Now  what  happened?  Now  at  the  very  height  of  his 
eagerness  all  his  dreams,  all  that  he  had  suffered  through 
these  forty  days,  were  suddenly  dashed  and  shattered  like 
a Venetian  glass.  When  the  people  heard  of  the  report  of 
the  spies  they  were  fearful.  “ Would  God,”  said  they, 
“ that  we  had  died  in  the  land  of  Egypt ! or  would  God  we 
had  died  in  the  wilderness.  And  wherefore  hath  the  Lord 
brought  us  unto  this  land,  to  fall  by  the  sword,  that  our 
wives  and  children  should  be  a prey  ? Were  it  not  better 
for  us  to  return  into  Egypt.”  That  was  Joshua’s  first  trial, 
and  truly  it  was  sharp  enough.  Everything  he  loved  and 
aspired  to  were  shattered  to  pieces,  and  in  the  bitterness 
of  his  disappointment  he  might  have  been  tempted  to  give 
way  to  their  outcry,  or  to  be  untrue  to  the  great  object  of 
his  life.  How  did  the  man  come  out  of  this  ? In  those 
times  when  a man  is  so  tested,  we  see  the  real  stuff  of 
which  he  is  made.  ‘‘And  they  (Joshua  and  Caleb)  spoke 
unto  all  the  company  of  the  children  of  Israel,  saying.  The 
land  which  we  passed  through  to  reach  it  is  an  exceeding 
good  land.  If  the  Lord  delight  in  us,  then  He  will  bring  us 
into  this  land  and  give  it  us  ; a land  which  floweth  with 
milk  and  honey.”  What  vigour,  what  practical  faith  in 
God  there  is  in  all  these  words.  Now  listen  to  these 
courageous  words : “ Only  rebel  not  ye  against  the  Lord, 
neither  fear  ye  the  people  of  the  land,  for  they  are  bread 
for  us  ; their  defence  is  departed  from  them,  and  the  Lord 
is  with  us  ; fear  them  not.”  But  the  people  stoned  them. 

So  the  dream  was  shattered.  It  was  a sorry  thing  for 
Joshua.  He  had  to  put  quietly  by  his  splendid  anticipa- 
tions for  many  years.  But  he  took  two  things  with  him — 
great  courage,  which  we  find  in  his  speech,  and  great  faith 
in  God. 

I close  with  one  or  two  remarks  drawn  from  this.  If  we 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


8i 


are  to  do  anything  in  our  lives  the  time  comes  sooner  or 
later.  It  came  to  Joshua,  this  time,  when  Moses  re-named 
him  and  gave  him  his  life  work  ; it  came  to  David,  when 
he  was  called  to  be  king  over  Israel ; and  it  came  to  Christ, 
when  he  was  baptized  by  John  and  went  into  the  wilder- 
ness ; it  came  to  Wordsworth  on  that  dreary  morning 
among  the  hills  which  he  saw  full  of  God,  and  when  he  was 
filled  with  thoughts  of  God  ; it  comes  to  all  of  us  the  day 
we  feel,  This  is  my  work,  I will  do  it,  God  helping  me.” 
Our  name  is,  as  it  were,  changed ; we  are  baptized  and 
consecrated  by  God.  Some  among  you  may  be  at  that 
moment  now.  Have  you,  my  brother,  counted  the  cost, 
lest  having  taken  up  the  work  you  leave  it  incomplete. 
See  what  lies  before  you  ; search  out  the  land  you  are 
going  to  conquer,  going  through  it  step  by  step,  even  as 
Gideon  and  the  other  scouts,  finding  out  the  difficulties; 
and  may  the  courage  and  faith  you  have  be  such  that  you 
shall  see  “This  is  prepared  for  me,"'  for  I shall  be  faithful 
and  accomplish  my  destiny. 

Some  of  you  may  have  begun.  How  have  you  done  it  ? 
Well  and  bravely,  or  lazily  and  fearingly  ? Having  seen 
the  difficulties,  have  you  said  in  your  heart,  “ Would  God 
that  I could  get  back  to  Egypt.”  Take  this  history  as  a 
warning — you  will  not  get  back  to  Egypt.  You  will 
wander  and  die  in  the  wilderness,  and  as  you  look  back 
you  will  know  you  have  been  untrue  to  your  inspiration. 
It  may  not  be  so  yet,  there  may  be  time  to  save  your  soul. 
The  call  is  to-day,  when  you  are  baptized  into  your  work, 
when  the  dew  of  its  inspiration  fills  your  soul  like  a 
summer’s  garden  in  the  morning,  when  you  hear  its  voice 
to  you,  “This  is  the  way  ; walk  ye  in  it,”  or  only  if  you 
recall  enough  to  gain  an  impulse  to  go  forward,  thinking 
of  how  Joshua  conquered,  and  of  how  Jesus  the  great 
Master  rose  from  the  dead  with  you.  Have  faith  in  God 
as  your  father,  and  in  the  courage  of  Joshua  begin  again. 
Be  strong  and  very  courageous,  and  all  the  powers  of  evil 
will  fall  before  the  faith  and  courage  which  you  will  receive 
from  God  Himself. 

S.  B 


G 


82 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


XI.  The  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host.  Josh.  v. 
13-15.  A7id  it  came  to  pass,  whe7i  Joshua  was  by  Jericho,  that 

he  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked,  and,  behold,  thei'e  stood  a ma7i 
over  against  him  ivith  his  sword  drawn  m his  hand : and 
Joshua  went  unto  hun,  and  said  u7ito  him.  Art  thoti  for  us,  or 
for  our  adversaries  I And  he  said,  Nay  ; but  as  captain  of  the 
host  of  the  Lord  a7n  I now  come.  And  Joshua  fell  on  his  face 
to  the  earth,  and  did  worship,  and  said  unto  hi77i.  What  saith 
7iiy  lord  unto  his  se7'vant  ? And  the  captam  of  the  Lord's  host 
said  unto  Joshua,  Loose  thy  shoe  from  off  thy  foot ; for  the 
place  whereo7i  thou  standest  is  holy.  And  Joshua  did  so," 

God’s  revelations  of  Himself  are  always  to  be  shaped  by 
the  momentary  necessities  of  the  people  at  the  time  they 
are  made.  They  take  the  form  and  the  pressure  of  the 
instant’s  need,  and  vary  according  to  the  moment’s  wants. 
And  so  here  the  army  of  Israel  was  just  beginning  a hard 
struggle,  under  an  untried  leader, — Moses  had  been  left 
behind  at  Pisgah, — and  now  they  had  the  Jordan  behind 
them,  and  in  front  of  them  the  strong,  fortified,  and  seem- 
ingly impregnable  city  of  Jericho,  embosomed  in  the  palm 
trees  there  ; and  beyond  it,  the  steep  passes  and  the  moun- 
tain land  they  wanted  to  win.  So  the  soldiers  of  this  army 
had  no  doubt  their  own  cares  and  anxieties,  and  their 
leaders  would  feel  the  heavy  responsibility  of  the  occasion 
resting  upon  them  ; and  so  their  commander  seems  to  have 
gone  away  by  himself,  and  to  have  been  brooding,  as  he  had 
been  brooding  many  a time  before,  how  he  was  to  get  into 
that  fortified  city  up  there  which  barred  his  progress,  and 
was  a menace  of  defeat  and  overthrow.  And  lifting  up 
eyes,  as  a meditative  man  will  do,  not  expecting  anything, 
having  no  prevision  of  a supernatural  visitation,  and  lo,” 
as  our  story  has  it,  he  was  startled  by  the  appearance  of 
an  armed  man,  standing  statuesque  and  picturesque  in  close 
proximity.  As  I have  said,  he  had  no  notion  of  a super- 
natural vision  ; mundane  affairs  were  filling  his  mind,  he 
has  no  preparation  for  anything  of  the  sort,  but  with  true 
soldier-like  courage  and  promptitude,  he  strides  up  to  him 
with  the  quick  challenge  ; “ Who  do  you  belong  to  ; are  you 
one  of  us,  or  do  you  belong  to  them  from  the  city  there  ? ” 
And  then  the  hitherto  silent  lips  uttered  the  answer,  I do 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


83 


not  belong  to  you,  you  belong  to  me  ; as  Captain  of  the  host 
of  the  Lord  am  I come  up”  And  then  down  upon  his 
knees  Joshua  bends  before  him  and  recognises  that  he  him- 
self is  only  second  in  command,  and  that  this  is  the  true 
Captain  and  Leader  of  the  people.  “What  does  my  Lord 
say  to  thy  servant  ? ” Put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet, 
and  then  listen  and  I will  tell  thee  how  this  Jericho  shall 
be  taken.”  Without  wasting  your  time  with  talk  about  this 
being  legend  or  hallucination,  or  anything  of  that  sort,  and 
taking  the  story  as  we  find  it,  with  many  large  and  valuable 
truths  in  it,  I select  one  or  two  thoughts  from  it,  and  first 
of  all  I want  to  bring  out  more  distinctly  the  profound 
significance  of  the  person  and  the  office  of  this  Captain 
of  the  host  of  the  Lord. 

Notice  that  in  this  story,  for  whatsoever  reason,  there  is 
a strange  blending  together  of  the  two  elements,  humanity 
and  divinity,  the  apparent  humanity, — distinct  and  separate 
from  divinity, — and  yet  claiming  the  Divine  attribute.  The 
speaker  as  the  Captain  of  the  host  of  the  Lord,  does  not 
distinctly  say  that  the  host  is  his,  and  yet  he  is  the  Captain 
of  the  host  that  obeys  the  injunction  of  Jehovah  himself. 
And  then  you  find  him  in  the  subsequent  portion  of  the 
narrative,  speaking  as  endowed  with  the  full  power  of 
Jehovah,  and  recognised  by  the  obedience  of  the  Leader 
of  Israel  as  being  thus  invested,  and  his  word  identified 
with  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  his  commandment'  with 
the  commandment  of  God  Himself.  And  you  find  still 
further  that  in  the  very  page  there  come  these  words — 
“The  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host  said  unto  Joshua,  Loose 
thy  shoe  from  off  thy  foot ; for  the  place  whereon  thou 
standest  is  holy  ground.” 

Holy,  because  he  was  there.  Another  thing.  “ Loose 
thy  shoes  ” are  a quotation.  When  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  appeared  in  the  burning  bush  in  the  wilderness,  these 
were  the  words  that  were  spoken — “Loose  thy  shoes  from 
off  thy  feet.”  So  far  the  story  carries  these  points.  A 
singular  apparent  identification  with  divinity,  and  a singu- 
lar apparent  separation  from  it.  But  the  quotation  from 
the  story  of  the  appearance  to  Moses  carries  us  a step 
further.  We  are  to  recognise  in  this  same  human  figure, 
armed  and  commanding,  that  figure  which  appeared  to 
Moses  in  the  flame  of  fire  out  of  the  bush.  If  you  will 


84 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


turn  to  that  story,  you  will  find  that  in  it  the  speaker  is 
called  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  and  that  this  angel  of  the 
Lord  is  spoken  of  with  an  elevation  of  tone,  and  an  unhesi- 
tating application  to  him  of  Divine  prerogative  and  func- 
tions, which  separate  him  altogether  from  the  hosts  of 
created  existences  which  stand  before  His  throne  who 
‘‘  maketh  His  angels  spirits,  and  His  ministers  a flame  of 
fire.”  And  then  that  opens  out  the  great  wide  door  as  to 
that  old,  difficult,  and  remarkable  subject,  as  to  the  mean- 
ing and  dignity  and  personality  of  the  figure  that  appears 
glancing  all  through  the  Old  Testament  from  Genesis 
to  Malachi,  the  angel  of  the  Lord.  Let  us  glance  at 
one  or  two  brief  quotations.  I should  ask  you,  then,  to 
think  of  this  first,  the  words  of  the  dying  patriarch  when 
“he  blessed  Joseph,  and  said,  God,  before  whom  my  fathers 
Abraham  and  Isaac  did  walk,  the  God  which  fed  me  all 
my  life  long  unto  this  day,  the  Angel  which  redeemed  me 
from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads.”  In  one  benediction  and  invo- 
cation “the  God  which  fed  me  all  my  life  long,”  and  “the 
angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,”  are  incorporated. 
Then  there  is  that  to  which  I have  already  referred, — the 
appearance  in  the  burning  bush  to  Moses.  And  then 
there  is  another  one : “ The  angel  of  the  Lord  encampeth 
round  about  them  that  fear  Him,  and  delivereth  them.” 
There  is  a strange  blending  of  the  reverence  for  divinity, 
and  the  protection  of  some  mysterious  person, — the  angel 
of  the  Lord.  And  then  hear  the  commentary  which  one 
of  the  later  prophets  makes  upon  this  strange  story  about 
Jacob  wrestling  with  the  man  concerning  whom  he  said, 
“ I have  seen  God,  and  my  life  is  preserved.”  Hosea  said 
he  had  power  over  the  angel  and  prevailed  ; he  found  him 
in  Bethel,  “ and  there  he  spoke  to  us,  even  the  Lord  God 
of  hosts.”  And  then  the  last  of  all  the  prophets  of  the 
old  covenant,  who  gathers  up  into  one  so  many  of  the 
threads  that  run  through  the  whole  series,  seems  to  put 
upon  it  the  top  stone  when  he  says,  “ Behold,  I will  send 
my  messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me  : 
and  the  Lord,  whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  His 
temple,  even  the  messenger  of  the  covenant,  whom  ye  de- 
light in,”  etc. 

And  now  put  that  altogether,— and  there  is  a great  deal 
more  than  that, — and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  answer  to  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


85 


question,  Who  is  this  mysterious  creature  that  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  the  earlier  revelation, — parted  from, 
and  yet  united  with,  the  Divine  name  and  nature, — whom 
the  prophet  Isaiah  calls  “ the  angel  of  the  face  ; that  the 
answer  to  the  question.  Who  is  he  ? the  answer  is  that  it 
is  T/ie  Eter7ial  Word  that  from  the  beginning  was  the  agent 
of  all  Divine  revelation,  and  who  from  the  first  manifested 
the  Father's  glory.  And  in  these  mysterious,  evanescent, 
merely  apparent  assumptions  of  the  human  form  and  humart 
speech,  was  giving,  as  it  were,  a kind  of  preludings,  and  far- 
off  preparations  of  that  great,  full,  and  perfect  revelation 
of  His,  when  the  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt  amongst 
us."  And  so  I think  the  answer  to  the  question, — who  is 
the  Angel  of  the  Covenant  ? is,  He  who  in  the  fulness  of 
time, — made  of  a woman,  made  under  the  law, — came  to 
redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law. 

There  is  another  point  before  I come  to  the  more  practical 
teaching  of  this  story,  and  that  is,  what  I call  the  office 
and  functions  of  this  Captain  of  the  Lord’s  host.  Whether 
you  accept  the  idea  that  this  is  a Divine  personal  activity, 
or  whether  you  believe  that  it  is  simply  some  created 
person  or  servant  of  the  uncreated  Divine  power ; it  re- 
mains the  same — the  Captain  of  the  hosts  of  the  Lord. 
And  what  are  these  hosts  ? That  little  camp  of  the 
Israelites  amongst  the  palm  trees  there  ? Surely  not.  Is 
it  the  other  camp  which  one  of  the  patriarchs  saw  in  his 
vision ; as  the  narrative  says,  in  its  archaic  simplicity, 
“ The  angels  of  the  Lord  met  him,  and  he  called  the 
place  Mahanaim  " — that  is,  “ two  camps  ; " my  little  camp 
down  here  ? that  great  one  up  in  the  heavens  ? There  is 
included  these  personal  existences  dimly  revealed  which 
seem  to  gather  round  about  us,  but  there  is  gathered  in 
it  all  the  forces  of  the  universe,  which  is  not  chaos, — 
as  the  old  Hebrews  had  found  out  long  before  natural 
science  and  philosophy  had  found  it  out, — but  all  obeying 
the  Divine  impulse  and  finger  of  the  will  that  had  created 
them  ; thus,  the  stars  in  their  courses,  the  seasons  in  their 
succession  and  order,  the  stormy  winds,  the  dragons  in  the 
great  deeps,  every  creature  in  the  whole  universe  except 
those  who  by  rebellious  wills  have  run  away  from  the  fair 
order.  These  are  the  hosts,  of  whom  this  is  the  Captain. 

It  seems  to  me,  that  none  else  or  other  than  He,  of  whom 


86 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


in  later  days  it  was  said,  ‘‘  All  things  were  made  by  Him, 
and  without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made,” 
was  fit  to  rule  with  his  Commander’s  truncheon  the  mighty 
forces  and  embattled  hosts  of  the  universe,  viz.  Christ  as 
the  King,  the  King  of  kings,  the  Lord  of  lords,  the  Lord 
of  nature,  the  Lord  of  angels,  for  they  must  be  included, 
the  Lord  and  Ruler  of  all  that  are,  and  they  serve  His 
purposes  as  Captain  of  the  Lord’s  hosts  ! And  then  if 
this  be  anything  like  the  true — howsoever  inadequate — 
interpretation  of  the  words  before  us  I need  not  more  than 
prompt  you  of  how  these  thoughts  are  in  immediate  antici- 
pation of  great  New  Testament  thoughts  ; Christ  is  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  Yes,  but  Christ  said,  I came  not  to  bring 
peace  upon  earth,  but  a sword  ; ” and  His  peace  is  first  of 
all  righteousness,  and  not  until  the  righteousness  is  secured 
is  the  peace  proclaimed.  His  name,  which  is  Jesus,  is  the 
same  as  the  Captain  and  Leader  in  our  story, — Joshua  who 
led  the  people  through  many  a hard  fought  field  to  victory  ; 
and  the  Captain  of  the  New  Testament  salvation  shall  lead 
men  through  many  a struggle  and  difficulty  and  wavering 
hesitation  and  critical  conjuncture,  safe  over  the  beleagured 
cities  that  stand  in  opposing  strength  thickly  round  our 
path,  right  through  to  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem  beyond. 
His  warfare  is  the  exhibition  of  His  love,  His  gentleness, 
His  forgiveness,  and  His  healing,  in  the  face  of  all  the  powers 
of  evil  that  set  themselves  against  Him.  And  so  Christ  is 
the  warlike  Christ,  warring  a merciful  warfare  that  knows 
no  peace  because  it  is  righteousness.  And  so  with  this 
interpretation  of  the  significance  of  the  person  and  function 
that  is  set  before  us  in  this  vision. 

And  now  I will  try  to  put  as  simply  as  I can  one  or  two 
broad  lessons  that  come  for  all  time  out  of  this  incident. 
Its  significance  in  that  petty  incident  in  the  history  of  the 
world  has  long  since  been  exhausted  ; and  if  it  were  only 
for  the  sake  of  this  people  this  incident  happened  it  would 
not  be  worth  my  while  to  consider  it,  but  we  must  disengage 
these  principles  from  the  mere  transitory  things  of  which 
they  are  the  revelation.  So  notice  how  this  attitude  of  the 
mysterious  person,  of  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  carries  with  it 
great  and  everlasting  truths  upon  which  you  and  I may 
lean  our  whole  weight.  There  are  two  different  ways  in 
which  I look  upon  this  incident : one  of  them,  the  great 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


87 


warfare  that  is  always  going  on  in  this  world  between  God 
and  the  devil  ; and  the  other,  the  narrower  one,  the  battle- 
ground of  which  is  my  own  heart,  and  the  combatants  are 
Christ  and  my  own  worldly  lusts.  And  so  with  regard 
to  the  first  thing,  that  He  Himself,  Jesus  Christ,  in  no 
metaphor,  in  no  exaggerated  figure,  in  no  mere  influence 
of  His  patient  action  ; but  by  present  helpfulness  and 
present  work  takes  part  in  the  perennial  fight  that  is  going 
on  in  this  world  between  good  and  evil,  and  strikes  on  the 
side  of  good.  You  remember  that  grand  vision  with  which 
the  gospel  stories  end,  of  the  Lord  lifted  up  in  heaven  ; and 
how  one  of  the  evangelists  puts  it  in  its  most  picturesque 
form  when  he  says,  “ He  was  lifted  up  and  put  on  the 
right  hand  of  God.'^  What  a strange  contrast  this  ! Is 
this  Captain  gone  to  some  safe  distance,  and  watching 
the  fight  down  in  the  valley  below,  while  the  men  are 
struggling  with  grim  death — Himself  with  no  smell  of  gun- 
powder on  Him.  Is  that  the  kind  of  leader?  God  forbid. 
They  went  forth  and  preached  everywhere,  the  Lord  work- 
ing with  them  and  confirming  the  word  with  signs  following. 
Them  down  here.  Him  up  yonder,  breathing  His  influence 
over  the  field  everywhere.  The  old  legend  that  many  a 
one  has  been  strengthened  with,  of  the  two  pale  horse- 
men who  had  charged  at  the  head  of  the  soldiers  on  the 
plain  of  Marathon,  all  of  these  are  but  adumbrations  of  the 
truth  that  wherever  a man  for  Christ’s  sake  strikes  out 
against  any  kind  of  evil  or  abomination,  he  may  be  sure 
that  he  has  Christ  at  his  side.  And  how  much  soever  we 
may  feel  that  the  work  is  nothing,  and  that  all  the  talents 
that  guide  a wise  and  benevolent  man  are  counteracted  by 
the  tendencies  of  human  nature,  do  not  let  us  be  down- 
hearted and  disappointed  ; it  is  only  the  false  appearance  of 
things.  The  kingdoms  ivill  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
God  and  His  Christ  ; and  His  help  is  not  in  vain  and  it  is 
said  truly  of  this,  as  is  untruly  said  about  another  kind  of 
conflict,  that  this  battle,  “though  baffled  oft  is  ever  won.” 
Christ  clashes  His  sword  down  into  the  scale;  that  out- 
weighs everything  else.  And  you,  weak  man  or  woman,  if 
you  stand  by  yourself  and  the  world  against  you,  if  you 
can  say  ‘‘Jesus  Christ  and  I,”  you  and  He  would  be  in 
the  majority,  and  your  labour  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord. 
So  Christian  man  and  woman,  and  all  of  you  that  in  any 


88 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


way  are  helping  on  that  great  cause,  be  of  good  cheer,  and 
do  not  only  look  at  these  high  battlements  of  that  Jericho 
there,  but  lift  up  your  eyes  and  behold  the  Captain  of  the 
hosts  of  the  Lord.  Take  up  your  weapons  and  He  will 
bring  you  victory.  And  so  the  same  thoughts,  with  a 
brief  and  slight  modification,  apply  to  the  other  department 
in  which  that  same  metaphor  is  placed.  Jesus  Christ  has 
fought  all  that  fight  that  you  and  I have  got  to  fight.  No 
man  can  front  a temptation  which  does  not  appeal  to  the 
experience  and  the  memory  of  Him  who  began  His  career 
by  facing  the  wilderness  and  the  devil,  and  ended  His 
career  on  the  cross,  which  was  an  intense  superlative  of 
all  temptations.  And  so  when  we  come  into  the  fight  with 
the  cavillings  of  our  own  hearts,  when  we  try  to  get  the 
mastery  of  our  own  passions,  and  to  resist  the  temptations 
that  beset  us  round  about ; and  when  we  begin  to  discover, 
after  being  beaten  so  often,  how  little  strength  we  have  of 
ourselves,  let  us  think  of  Him  who  served  in  the  ranks  before 
He  became  commander,  and  who  knows  all  about  the 
battle,  and  do  not  go  into  the  fight  at  your  own  charge. 
Do  not  fancy  that  your  own  firm  resolution  will  enable 
you  to  repel  temptation  ; do  not  think  that  your  own 
strength,  or  motives  drawn  from  your  own  person,  will  be 
ever  adequate  to  make  you  a conqueror  in  the  fight  with 
lust,  and  passion,  and  sense,  and  self,  and  earth,  and  the 
devil.  You  have  not  done  it  in  the  past — you  will  not 
do  it  in  the  future.  Jericho  will  stand  untouched  as  far 
as  you  are  concerned  unless  you  put  yourself  into  His 
ranks,  the  ranks  of  the  Captain  of  the  hosts  of  the  Lord. 
Be  Christ’s  soldiers  and  servants,  and  do  not  attempt  a 
campaign  in  your  own  strength,  or  there  is  nothing  before 
you  except  shame  and  defeat;  but  rather  as  this  Joshua 
here,  “What  saith  rny  Lord  unto  His  servant?”  And 
you  will  get  all  the  reply  you  want,  and  as  you  want  it, 
and  in  the  shape  and  at  the  time  you  need  it,  until  at  last 
you  will  be  able  to  say,  “ Now.  unto  Him  that  has  made 
us  more  than  conquerors,  unto  Him  be  praise  and  honour 
and  glory  for  ever.”  And  He  will  fulfil  the  promise  that 
He  has  made  to  us  all,  “To  him  that  overcometh  will  I 
grant  to  sit  with  Me  in  My  throne,  even  as  I,  the  Captain 
and  Leader,  overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father 
in  His  throne.”  Amen. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


89 


XII.  Barak’s  Faith.  Jud.  iv.  9.  And  she  said,,  I 
will  surely  go  with  thee:  not^vithstanding  the  journey  that  thou 
takest  shall  not  be  for  thine  honour ; for  the  Lord  shall  sell 
Sisera  mto  the  hand  of  a woniani*' 

Barak,  to  whom  these  words  are  spoken,  is  mentioned  by 
name  in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  amongst  the  heroes  of 
faith.  It  is  not  quite  easy  at  first  sight  to  see  the  reason 
for  this  selection.  Who  and  what  was  Barak,  as  the  Old 
Testament  paints  him,  that  he  should  have  a place  given 
him  in  the  other  half  of  the  Bible,  that  half  of  the  Bible 
which  tells  of  life  and  immortality  brought  to  light  by  the 
gospel } To  answer  this  question  we  must  look  below  the 
surface  of  the  story,  and  then  we  shall  see  that  in  the 
personal  insignificance  of  Barak  lies  the  very  reason  of 
his  everlasting  renown.  It  is  very  interesting  to  fasten, 
in  reading  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  upon  those 
shadows  cast  before  by  coming  events  and  future  revela- 
tions, which  show  the  one  Hand  and  the  one  Mind  in  the 
composition  of  the  book.  Although  revelation  is  always 
progressive  in  its  disclosures,  and  although  as  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  says,  God  spake  in  old  times  to  the  fathers 
in  many  parts  and  portions,  rather  than  in  full  complete- 
ness, and  although  this  method  was  essential  to  the  educa- 
tion and  intention  of  all  God’s  dealings,  with  the  race  as 
well  as  with  the  man,  still  it  pleased  Him  to  give  here  and 
there  glimmerings  and  glimpses  from  the  very  beginning 
of  the  meridian  Gospel-day ; enough,  at  least,  to  attest  the 
continuity  of  the  revelation  and  the  divinity  of  the  Re- 
vealer.  Instances  of  this  are  very  common.  We  have  an 
example  of  it  in  the  two  chapters  before  us.  And  it  is  the 
more  seasonable,  perhaps,  to  notice  it,  because  infidelity, 
sometimes  clever,  but  always  superficial  and  ignorant  in  its 
treatment  of  Scripture,  has  fixed  upon  the  story  of  Sisera, 
and  notably  upon  the  panegyric  of  Sisera  in  the  Song  of 
Deborah,  as  one  of  the  most  assailable  points  in  the  Bible  ; 
and  therefore  it  is  particularly  desirable  to  call  attention, 
as  far  as  it  can  be  done  with  truth,  to  beautiful  points  and 
traits  in  the  actions  and  characters  here  set  before  us.  It 
ought  to  be  sufficient,  so  far  as  the  taunt  to  which  I have 
referred  is  concerned,  to  remind  ourselves  that  there  is  no 
assertion  whatever  in  the  Bible  of  the  inspiration  of  the 


90 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


song  of  Deborah:  ‘‘Blessed  above  women  shall  Jael  the 
wife  of  Heber  the  Kenite  be,  blessed  shall  she  be  above 
women.”  The  chant  may  have  been  nothing  more  than 
the  paean  of  a patriot  over  the  deed  which  had  set  her 
country  free  ; it  may,  for  anything  told  us  in  the  Bible, 
have  been  no  more  prophetic  utterance  than  the  counsel 
of  Balak  which  taught  Balaam  to  cast  a snare  and  deadly 
seduction  before  the  children  of  Israel  ; for  anything  con- 
trary to  good  morals  in  that  burst  of  eloquent  song,  the 
Bible,  and  the  God  of  the  Bible,  is  no  more  responsible 
than  for  those  terrible  lapses  of  the  Royal  Psalmist,  of 
which  this  is  the  solemn  closing  estimate,  on  the  part  of 
the  Bible  and  its  Author — “ But  the  thing  which  David 
had  done  displeased  the  Lord.” 

There  is  probably  a deeper  principle  of  interpretation 
involved  in  the  question,  namely,  that  in  the  field  of  morals 
itself,  the  revelation  of  God  and  the  inspiration  of  God 
have  not  been  precipitate,  but  gradual. 

Two  revelations,  certainly,  avowedly  waited  for  Christ 
Himself.  The  one  was  the  revelation  of  immortality,  and 
the  other  was  the  revelation  of  charity.  Of  both  these, 
shadows  were  cast  before.  Saints  walking  closely  with 
God  had  in  them  the  instinct  of  immortality  ; saints  walk- 
ing mostly  in  God  had  in  them  the  struggling,  flickering 
light  of  charity.  David  could  say,  “ I will  behold  Thy 
face  in  righteousness,  and  when  I awake  up  in  Thy  like- 
ness I shall  be  satisfied.”  And  David  could  say,  in  the 
far-off  retrospect  of  his  chequered  and  past  youth,  “ Is 
there  not  any  of  the  house  of  Saul,  that  I may  show  the 
kindness  of  God  unto  him.?”  These  were  rays  and  voices 
from  the  excellent  glory,  showing  that  above  and  beyond 
the  clouds  of  human  passion  and  ignorance,  there  was 
already  and  always  a bright  light  in  heaven.  But  these 
glimpses  were  by  their  nature  exceptional  and  intermittent. 
As  a rule,  courage  was  then  a higher  virtue  than  patience, 
devotion  than  forgiveness,  patriotism  than  charity.  Let 
us,  brethren,  who  have  received  the  Christian  revelation 
concerning  these  things,  look  to  it  that  we  lose  not  the 
stronger  and  sturdier  virtues  in  the  easy  flatteries  and  the 
plausible  compromises  of  a loose  and  flexible  Christianity. 

The  spirit  of  Deborah,  in  its  very  heartiness,  may  still 
teach  us  something — something  which  shall  nerve  the  arm 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


91 


for  what  Scripture  calls  “the  resistance  unto  blood  in 
striving  against  sin,  while  it  may  lend  its  energy  to  that 
most  excellent  grace,  charity,  out  of  which  whosoever 
liveth  is  dead  before  his  time  ; it  can  never  be  superfluous 
to  take  off  the  edge  of  a moral  difficulty  in  the  paths  of 
Divine  revelation.  The  parade  of  such  difficulties  before 
minds  unused  to  thoughtful  inquiry,  k^eps  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  our  countrymen  from  the  very  porch 
and  vestibule  of  God’s  Word.  Probably  no  argument, 
certainly  no  reproaches,  will  avail  much  for  the  reinstate- 
ment in  faith  and  worship  of  men  who  have  once  admitted, 
willingly  or  unwillingly,  the  cruel  objection,  the  more  cruel 
sneer,  the  most  cruel  jest  of  an  ingenious  and  industrious 
infidelity.  These  we  must,  by  any  or  by  all  means,  in 
duty  and  in  mercy,  endeavour  to  rescue  ; and  while  here 
and  there,  by  the  grace  of  God,  our  efforts  will  be  crowned 
with  success,  yet  that  success  will  rather  be  in  the  pro- 
vidential dealings  of  the  Invisible  wfith  the  lives  and  hearts 
of  men,  which  they  will  then  know  must  bow  before  a 
power  and  a love  which  cannot  always  be  evaded  or  trifled 
with,  and  which  will  make  them  in  the  end  confess  in 
secret  in  their  found-out  soul — “Yes,  there  are  mysteries 
in  religion  which  I cannot  fathom,  but  the  mystery  of 
mysteries  is  my  own  being.  Yes,  there  are  difficulties, 
moral  difficulties,  if  you  will  call  them  so  ; contradictions, 
discrepancies,  if  you  will  call  them  so ; but  the  difficulty 
of  difficulties  is  how  to  be  good  and  how  to  be  happy,  and 
the  contradiction  of  contradictions  is  the  conflict  between 
inclination  and  duty,  between  the  life  which  must  die  and 
the  life  which  cannot  die.  And,  under  the  stress  of  this 
divided  and  distracted  condition,  I must  and  will  put  it  to 
the  proof,  the  personal  proof.  Perhaps  there  is  for  me  a 
Father  in  heaven  ; a Father  whom  to  know  is  to  solve  a 
problem  ; a Father  who  will  perhaps  explain  Himself  one 
day,  but  whom,  if  He  never  explains  Himself,  I shall  seek 
and  I shall  serve  and  I shall  love  still.  We  come  back  to 
the  text,  and  to  a few  brief  lessons  for  ourselves  from  the 
actions  of  the  characters  before  us.  In  an  age  and  season 
of  perpetual  unrest,  how  refreshing  to  our  spirits  to  have 
before  us  some  example,  albeit  in  the  remote  past,  of  a 
judge  who  could  dwell  under  the  palm  tree  between 
Ramah  and  Bethel,  and  to  whom  the  children  of  Israel 


92 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


could  go  up  for  judgment  Were  it  only  a picture  in  con- 
trast and  contrariety  to  a possible  present,  I would  not 
tantalize  you  by  exhibiting  it.  Who  does  not  yearn  and 
pant  for  rest — for  a pause  at  least — an  interlude  of  quiet- 
ness } Who  does  not  complain,  whose  countenance  does 
not  bear  the  mark  either  of  excitement  or  else  of  fatigue  } 
The  age  in  which  our  lot  is  cast  has  determined  not  to 
waive  its  activities  ; the  man  who  can  crowd  the  greatest 
number  of  engagements  into  one  day  is,  with  us,  the  dili- 
gent and  industrious  man.  Every  office,  every  dignity  up 
to  the  very  highest,  is  measured  and  judged  by  the  scale 
of  hours  given  to  business,  by  the  multitude  and  the  multi- 
fariousness of  its  separate  things  done.  Brethren,  it  is  an 
unfair  and  unrighteous  judgment.  Nothing  is  easier  than 
to  live  a life  all  in  sight  and  all  in  evidence.  The  difficult 
thing  is  to  live  any  other  : to  have  no  solitude  and  no 
privacy  suits  that  spiritual  indolence,  at  all  events,  which 
is  in  all  of  us  by  nature.  If,  in  addition  to  incurring  no 
blame,  we  can  often  get  praise  for  a life  lived  all  in  sight 
of  the  sun,  this  redeems  the  conscience  from  its  sense  of 
one  relation,  the  highest  and  holiest  of  all,  being  left  un- 
fulfilled and  unrealized,  adding  that  pleasantest  sensation 
of  all,  the  being  compassioned  for  neglect  of  duty,  till  at 
last  the  man  loses  the  very  power  of  repose,  of  so  much  as 
the  enjoying  a holiday,  and  the  whole  being  becomes  that 
external,  that  superficial,  thing  which  has  no  yesterday  and 
no  to-morrow,  certainly  no  remembrance  of  any  Divine 
Rock  from  which  it  was  hewn  or  any  Divine  source  to 
which  it  must  eventually  return.  You  may  say  indeed 
that  the  life  lived  under  the  palm  tree  between  Bethel  and 
Ramah  must  have  been  fearfully  monotonous,  utterly  with- 
out incident,  mentally  as  well  as  physically  stagnant,  also 
that  it  is  idle  to  draw  lessons  from  a state  of  things  quite 
impossible  now.  What  would  a judge  or  a bishop  be 
thought  of  in  these  days  who  should  try  to  act  on  that 
principle.^  Few  men,  it  may  be  urged,  are  capable  of  pro- 
fiting by  leisure,  even  if  they  could  find  it.  The  practical 
life  is  at  all  events  useful ; it  lays  the  axe  at  the  root  of 
many  kinds  of  sin.  Let  us  admit  all  this,  yet  let  us 
bewail  for  a moment  the  accompanying  ease.  If  the  right 
kind  of  men,  and  but  a few  of  them,  could  be  set  free  to 
think,  to  advise,  to  originate,  to  counsel,  what  a gain  would 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


93 


this  be  to  a people  laden  with  care,  full  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  perplexities,  and  feeling  themselves  terribly  alone 
in  a difficult  and  embarrassing  way!  For  lack  of  this 
many  lives  go  utterly  astray  and  many  minds  are  wrecked 
on  the  shoals  and  sand-banks  of  doubt.  It  might  be  said 
that  the  two  influences  of  action  and  thought  are  com- 
monly kept  distinct  in  the  present  state  of  things,  and 
those  that  want  counsel  have  no  lack  of  help  from  an  in- 
numerable crowd  of  helpers.  Unhappily  the  thinkers  are 
too  much  isolated  from  action,  so  that  they  run  into  vain 
and  profitless  speculation,  having  no  help  for  this  life  nor 
hope  for  that  which  is  to  come.  The  moral  of  it  all  is  : 
Busy  men,  snatch  moments  of  reflection.  Even  if  these  are 
rare  moments,  if  well  used,  they  will  fertilize,  will  tranquil- 
lize, will  consecrate  the  long  hours  of  toil.  When  you  die 
your  life  will  not  vanish  like  the  lives  of  those  who  neither 
feared  God  nor  regarded  man  ; they  will  have  left  a sweet 
memory  behind  them,  and  they  themselves  will  pass  natu- 
rally into  the  heavenly  rest  which  remaineth. 

The  second  thought  is  the  true  place  and  dignity  of 
woman.  We  see  it  here  in  the  positive  and  in  the  nega- 
tive. Deborah  was  a prophetess : God  spake  to  her ; she 
saw  within  and  beneath  the  appearance  of  things.  That  is 
a prophet.  She  did  not  allow  the  visible  to  crush  out  the 
invisible.  She  was  not  appalled  by  the  nine  hundred 
chariots  of  iron  : she  did  not  feel  that  King  Jabin  and  his 
great  general  were  invincible  because  for  twenty  years  they 
mightily  oppressed  the  children  of  Israel.  She  saw  through 
these,  and  knew  still  that  there  was  a God  in  Israel  who 
rules  in  the  kingdom  of  man,  and  who,  though  He  tarries 
long  and  sometimes  sets  up  over  nations  the  basest  of 
rulers,  can  yet  be  called  on  by  prayer,  and  in  the  long  run 
will  make  it  to  be  well  with  the  righteous.  Deborah  was  a 
prophetess,  and  the  spirit  which  I have  tried  to  describe  is 
the  spirit  of  prophecy.  Having  it,  she  was,  as  a matter  of 
course,  an  influence  in  her  generation.  Men  who  sought 
her  for  judgment  doubtless  went  away  the  better  for 
having  seen  her.  In  a great  emergency  she  obtained  that 
influence.  She  called  Barak  to  her,  set  him  his  task, 
assured  him  of  his  commission,  and  even  consented  at  his 
request  to  accompany  him  on  his  march.  This  was  heroic, 
but  it  was  also  feminine : Deborah  did  not  assume  the 


94 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


command  of  the  army  ; she  was  the  influence,  she  was  the 
inspiration,  but  she  left  the  leadership  and  the  generalship 
to  another.  Not  for  nothing  have  we  the  record  of  another 
woman  on  the  same  page  with  that  of  Deborah.  We 
shrink  instinctively  from  the  false  dealing  and  the  blood- 
stained hand  of  Jael  ; she  has  overstepped  the  line  between 
the  feminine  and  masculine — nay,  between  the  enthusiast 
and  the  fanatic.  That  impassioned  cry,  “ Blessed  above 
women,'’  has  never  found  an  echo,  and  never  could  have 
found  an  echo,  in  any  evangelical  heart ; that  cry  has  given 
care  and  pain  and  trouble  to  many  champions  of  revela- 
tion. We  cannot  receive  it  as  the  voice  of  God's  Spirit, 
except  in  some  modified  and  softened  sense  in  which  it 
hails,  and  justly  hails,  the  victory,  however  soiled  and 
damaged,  of  the  alone  moral  theistic  nation  as  a victory  in 
the  long  run,  and  in  a large  view,  of  the  cause  of  progress, 
the  cause  of  development  and  therefore,  in  some  sense,  the 
cause  of  mankind  and  of  the  world.  But  the  chapter 
teaches  us  that  woman  is  to  be  content  with  that  honour 
and  dignity  which  God  has  made  hers.  Influence  is  hers, 
inspiration  may  be  hers,  alike  to  the  sword  of  Barak  and 
the  nail  and  the  hammer  of  Jael.  God  rarely  puts  into 
one  hand  both  influence  and  power ; those  who  grasp  at 
the  latter  usually  lose  the  former.  Influence  in  one  sense 
indeed,  is  power,  but  it  means  the  moral,  social,  spiritual 
power  only. 

One  last  thought  occurs,  and  it  might  seem  on  first 
hearing  to  conflict  with  the  foregoing,  but  it  is  not  so. 
Deborah  says  to  Barak,  Hath  not  the  Lord  God  of  Israel 
commanded  } " and  he  replies  to  her,  “ If  thou  wilt  go  with 
me  then  I will  go  ; but  if  thou  wilt  not  go  with  me,  then  I 
will  not  go.”  She  rejoins  yet  again,  ‘‘  I will  surely  go  with 
thee  ; notwithstanding  the  journey  that  thou  takest  shall 
not  be  for  thine  honour,  for  the  Lord  shall  sell  Sisera  into 
the  hand  of  a woman.”  We  are  not  concerned  with  the 
last  phrase,  The  Lord  shall  sell  Sisera  into  the  hands  of 
a woman.”  The  Scripture  writers  see  the  hand  of  God 
everywhere.  They  go  so  far  as  to  say,  “ Shall  there  be 
evil  in  a city,  and  the  Lord  hath  not  done  it?”  That 
distinction,  important  in  its  place,  which  we  make  so  com- 
monly between  the  ruling  and  overruling,  was  merged  for 
Scripture  writers  in  the  one  thought  of  the  Divine  empire 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


95 


and  omnipotence.  What ! ” they  ask,  or  seem  to  ask,  as 
a pregnant  question,  “ Can  God  do  anything  certainly, 
except  He  do  all  things  really?'’  Thus,  if  the  hostile 
general  bows  and  falls  at  the  feet  of  a Jewish  assassin, 
they  say,  ‘‘  The  Lord  delivered  Sisera ; the  Lord  sold 
Sisera  into  her  hand."  The  overruling  is  for  them  an 
agency.  They  are  not  afraid  of  any  cavilling ; for  them 
it  is  so. 

But  the  thought  before  us  is  differenjt.  What  v/as  the 
character,  the  differentia  of  the  faith  of  Barak,  that  the 
epistle  to  the  Hebrews  should  single  him  out  for  mention  ? 
And  we  find  it  here  in  the  self-forgetfulness  of  Barak  in 
doing  God’s  work.  What  if  one  woman  set  him  on  it,  and 
another  woman  is  to  finish  it?  What  if  the  journey  he 
took  was  not  to  be  for  his  own  honour — should  that  3top 
him  ? What  will  the  troops  say  if  they  see  a woman 
marching  by  his  side  ; if  they  see  him  consulting  her  for 
his  tactics  ; if  they  hear  him  confess  that  she  is  his 
monitress  and  superior?  Shall  that  not  deter?  No.  It 
is  God’s  cause  ; God’s  honour,  not  his,  is  the  thing  to  be 
aimed  at.  Here  is  faith  forgetting  itself  in  the  cause  of 
God.  Brethren,  it  is  a grand  heroism  ; for  lack  of  it  much 
good  work  is  spoiled,  and  much  more  is  left  undone.  It 
may  be  a matter  of  controversy  whether  a Wilberforce  or 
a Clarkson  was  earlier  in  the  field  against  the  slave-trade. 
The  workmen  of  God  do  not  fight  about  these  things. 
There  is  a phrase  which  is  often  used  of  God’s  agents  ; 
they  are  called  '‘humble  instruments.’’  Yet  this  same 
modest  disclaimer  asserts  the  instrumentality.  Propose  to 
omit  the  name  from  the  subscription  list,  from  the  list  of 
patrons,  where  will  the  humble  instrument  be  then  ? “ The 
journey  which  thou  takest  shall  not  be  for  thine  honour  ; ’’ 
no,  for  one  woman  suggested  it,  and  another  woman  was 
to  complete  it.  What  then?  Faith  is  willing  to  have  it 
so,  for  faith  is  the  sight  of  the  invisible,  and  rests  on  an 
invisible  power.  He  that  speaketh  of  himself  seeketh  his 
own  glory,  but  he  that  seeketh  His  glory  that  sent  him  is 
true,  and  no  unrighteousness  is  in  him.  What  shall  I more 
say?  The  time  would  fail  to  tell  of  the  faith  of  Barak, 
who  took  a journey  not  for  his  own  honour  ; who  obeyed 
the  call  of  a woman  saying,  “ Hath  not  God  commanded  ?’’ 
and  left  to  another  woman  the  last  stroke  of  victory. 


96 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES  . 


Brethren,  let  us  do  the  prescribed  portion  ; small  and  poor 
if  it  be,  it  is  better  for  the  like  of  us  ; let  us  do  the  little 
portion  set  us  of  the  world-wide  and  age-long  work  of 
God,  and  then  fall  asleep  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  wrote 
these  last  words  in  his  diary  the  night  before  he  was  sud- 
denly called  home  to  be  no  more  seen  : “ There  are  works 
which  by  God’s  permission  I would  do  before  the  night 
cometh^  but,  above  all,  let  me  mind  my  own  personal  work, 
keep  myself  pure  and  zealous  and  believing,  labour  to  do 
God’s  will,  yet  not  anxious  that  it  should  be  done  by  me 
rather  than  by  others,  if  God  disapproves  of  my  doing  it.” 
Be  this  our  spirit  in  life  and  in  death,  and  toil  itself  shall 
be  rest  ere  the  long  rest  comes ! 

C J.  V. 


XIII.  Ruth  and  Boaz.  Ruth  i.  22.  And  they  came  to 
Bethlehe7n  in  the  beginning  of  barley  hai  vestP 

You  will  not  expect  a meagre  abbreviation  of  the  beautiful 
story  of  Ruth.  It  seems  to  me  that  a preacher  who  would 
attempt  anything  of  the  kind  would  act  like  one  who, 
standing  on  the  outskirts  of  a forest,  and  had  seen  the 
glory  of  the  wintry  sunset  gleaming  through  the  branches, 
should  then  take  a few  dry  sticks  from  the  trees  as  a speci- 
men of  the  glories  he  had  witnessed.  I assume  that  you 
know  the  beautiful  story  of  the  Book  of  Ruth,  and  I shall 
only  attempt  to  draw  some  of  the  chief  moral  and  spiritual 
lessons  which  appear  to  me  to  pervade  it. 

I.  In  the  first  place  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Book  of 
Ruth  exhibits  to  us  an  eternal  law  of  God’s  kingdom.  I 
mean  that,  in  the  worst  and  darkest  times  of  the  Church, 
God  has  had  His  own  people.  We  are  led  directly  to  this 
law  by  the  objection  which  has  been  made  to  the  story  of 
the  Book  of  Ruth,  that  such  sweet  and  genuine  piety  is 
utterly  inconceivable  in  the  dark  and  stormy  times  of  the 
Judges.  But  if  you  bear  in  mind  the  truth  that  the  very 
purpose  of  the  Book  of  Judges  is  to  trace  out  the  law  of 
retaliation,  and  to  show  how  national  sin  is  connected  with 
national  punishment,  you  will  see  why  such  narratives  of 
exceptional  piety  like  that  of  Ruth  should  be  excluded. 
But  there  is  a more  satisfactory  answer  in  the  fact  that  ever 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


97 


since  God  had  a Church  on  earth  true  spiritual  religion  has 
never  been  utterly  extinguished.  Faith  can  always  say 
with  the  Apostle  that  there  is  a remnant  according  to  the 
election  of  grace.’'  When  God’s  holy  dove  is  driven  from 
cities  and  the  abodes  of  men,  that  bird  of  sweetest  note 
can  be  heard  singing  in  remote  places,  even  in  dens  and 
in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks. 

And  consider  for  one  moment  how  this  law  has  been 
exhibited  from  time  to  time  in  our  own  Church  of  England. 
It  seems  to  me  to  be  a great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
spiritual  religion  totally  disappeared  150  years  ago,  until 
it  was  as  if  accidentally  discovered  by  some  excellent 
men  in  the  suburbs  of  London  about  seventy  years  since. 
Just  take  two  instances  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Take  the  reign  and  court  of  Charles  II.  There 
are  many  who  wdll  remember  that  wonderful  picture  of 
the  last  Sunday  in  the  Church,  when  the  gallery  was  filled 
with  boys,  singing  lewd  songs,  and  the  king  was  to  be  seen 
playing  with  a group  of  dissipated  companions.  Yet  even 
here  the  life  of  Mary  Godolphin  was  hidden  with  Christ  in 
God.  She  walked  through  the  fire,  and  there  was  not  so 
much  as  the  smell  of  it  upon  her  raiment.  Even  here 
she  lived  according  to  rules  simple  and  direct,  and  which 
many  would  find  as  useful  in  a London  suburb  as  they 
were  to  her. 

Or,  again,  when  we  come  to  the  Georgian  era,  and  light 
upon  certain  histories  written  as  if  in  vitriolic  acid.  No 
doubt  there  is  enough  darkness  about  them,  and  we  light 
upon  clerical  slanders  rather  than  upon  the  souls  of  men 
being  cared  for,  and  of  dioceses  being  superintended.  Yet 
even  at  this  darkest  period  there  was  one  on  whose  face 
men  saw  a glow.  Bishop  Butler  was  sent  to  preside  over 
the  see  of  Durham,  while  in  remote  places  of  England  there 
were  men  of  the  stamp  of  the  Wesleys.  The  soil  may  be 
ever  so  rank,  the  spiritual  atmosphere  ever  so  unwholsome, 
but  still  the  Apostle’s  words  remain,  “ His  seed  abideth  ” — 
abideth  in  him  that  is  in  God.  Never  has  the  Church  been 
so  dead  but  that  the  voice  may  be  heard  which  said  of 
Sardis,  ‘'Thou  hast  a few  names  even  in  Sardis  which  have 
not  defiled  their  garments  ; and  they  shall  walk  before  Me 
in  white : for  they  are  worthy.” 

I\ow  of  this  great  law,  the  survival  of  holiness,  we 

H 


98 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


have  a beautiful  instance  in  the  Book  of  Ruth.  You 
will  observe  that  the  Bible  in  this  respect  differs  from  all 
our  preconceived  notions.  History,  it  is  sometimes  said, 
is  a pall  covering  dead  men’s  bones  ; but  at  least  it  covers 
them  gracefully.  The  king  shows  off  gracefully  in  the 
hands  of  some  great  master  of  the  art,  so  does  the  states- 
man who  claims  for  himself  a sort  of  Divine  right  of 
always  acting  with  the  majority.  As  we  frame  history  it 
is  all  perfect  and  sublime.  It  should  be  a passing  on  of 
saints  and  martyrs  with  a cross  on  their  shoulders,  and  a 
crown  on  their  brow,  to  the  throne  of  glory.  But  as  God 
has  framed  history,  how  different  it  is ! Its  every  page 
is  stained  and  blistered — stained  with  blood  and  blistered 
with  tears.  And  of  this  feature  in  Old  Testament  history, 
the  Book  of  Judges  is  an  example.  The  Divine  narrative 
closes  with  a sigh.  ‘‘  In  those  days  there  was  no  king  in 
Israel  ; every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own 
eyes.” 

Now,  over  against  all  this  stands  the  Book  of  Ruth,  in 
which  the  characters  are  drawn  in  simple  life.  An  air  of 
truthfulness  and  reality  pervades  the  book.  In  support 
of  this  I need  only  remind  you  of  the  beautiful  language 
of  Naomi  with  regard  to  Ruth  herself.  I find  a German 
critic  saying  that  “ Ruth  is  not  a marked  character.”  But 
is  that  a real  objection } What  is  the  true  and  high  ideal 
of  woman?  Is  she  simply  a thing  of  nerves  and  bones? 
Is  it  for  her  to  wash  the  wounds  of  pain,  or  to  minister  in 
old  age,  and  in  daily  sickness  ? We  entwine  the  memory 
of  a woman  dear  to  us  with  sickness  and  suffering  re- 
lieved. 

Ruth  embraces  the  true  religion  with  her  whole  heart. 
Boaz  sees  that  she  has  come  to  put  her  trust  under  the 
wings  of  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  not  a young  proselyte 
caught  by  those  who  wish  to  entrap  her.  She  comes  with 
her  whole  heart,  and  that  heart  a broken  one.  She  is  the 
type  of  the  Gentile  Church,  she  is  the  firstfruits  of  that  great 
multitude  of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  tribes,  who 
have  been  drawn  to  the  Cross.  Then  you  notice  another 
thing  after  Naomi  has  addressed  her  daughters-in-law ; 
‘‘  Orpah  kissed  her  mother-in-law,  but  Ruth  clav^’e  unto 
her.”  We  all  know  how  much  these  little  gushing  tokens 
of  affection  mean  in  sweet-mannered  women.  Truth,  pro- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


99 


priety,  affection,  these  are  the  old  combined  virtues  that 
formed  the  character  of  Ruth. 

Then  we  have  Boaz.  There  have  been  times  when  the 
young  have  needed  encouragement,  and  it  is  well  to  en- 
courage those  even  who  are  growing  old.  The  voice  of  a 
philosopher  reminds  us  that  the  work  of  the  world  is  done 
by  the  young,  that  the  golden  decade  is  between  thirty  and 
forty,  that  men  as  they  grow  older  become  lost  to  enthu- 
siasm and  to  faith.  Now  the  words  of  Boaz  have  a Bible 
tinge,  and  his  memory  is  haunted  by  Bible  echoes.  “ And, 
behold,  Boaz  came  from  Bethlehem,  and  said  unto  the 
reapers,  The  Lord  be  with  you.  And  they  answered  him, 
The  Lord  bless  thee.’'  Think  of  that  beautiful  service  in 
the  harvest  field  ! It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
some  one  might  come  into  Westminster  Abbey,  and  when 
the  last  light  of  day  is  stealing  in  through  the  clerestory, 
when  the  priest  says,  **  The  Lord  be  with  you,”  and  the 
choir  responds,  “And  with  Thy  Spirit,”  you  may  catch 
the  echo  of  words  once  spoken  during  the  barley  harvest 
of  Bethlehem.” 

II.  We  may  learn  a lesson  on  the  law  of  social  life. 
There  is  throughout  the  book  a constant  reference  to  the 
Levitical  law.  There  is  the  “ goel,”  the  redeeming  kinsman. 
But  I wish  you  specially  to  observe  the  beneficence  of  the 
law.  I wish  that  some  who  speak  of  the  barbarous  char- 
acter of  the  old  law  would  take  their  Bibles  and  read  the 
1 8th  chapter  of  Leviticus.  You  will  there  see  that  God 
ordained  that  a portion  should  be  reserved  for  the  poor  and 
the  stranger.  The  law  gave  a measure  of  wealth  to  the 
indigent.  It  solved  in  this  way  one  of  the  most  terrible 
problems  of  our  modern  society.  While  it  did  this  there 
was  an  ample  margin  left  for  the  exercise  of  private  charity. 
The  corner  of  the  field  was  defined  to  mean  a portion  that 
in  modern  language  would  have  been  a poor-rate  of  four- 
pence  in  the  pound.  It  was  not  a system  of  outdoor  relief, 
for  the  Book  of  Ruth  shows  us  that  there  was  great  delicacy 
to  be  observed  in  giving.  There  is  a difference  between 
the  alms  you  fling  and  the  present  you  give.  And  thus 
there  is  a moral  even  in  children’s  presents.  But  I think  it 
should  be  observed  in  favour  of  the  old  Levitical  law  that 
this  England  never  found  out  till  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth the  difference  between  the  pauper  and  the  vagabond. 


lOO 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


the  difference  between  misfortune  and  crime.  Depend 
upon  it,  as  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  works,  the  bitter 
taunt  will  become  less  and  less  true  that  England  is  a para- 
dise for  the  rich  and  a purgatory  for  the  poor. 

III.  There  is  an  Evangelical  law  connecting  this  book 
of  the  Old  Testament  with  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Per- 
haps, in  modern  times,  we  have  heard  too  much  of  Ruth  as 
an  idyll,  and  too  little  of  it  as  a sacred  book  of  the  inspired 
canon.  We  have  been  called  on  to  see  her  as  she  appeared 
to  the  poet  Keats,  too  little  as  she  appeared  to  St.  Matthew 
linked  in  the  genealogy  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  cannot  dis- 
pense with  the  genealogies  of  the  New  Testament.  They 
do  not  consist  simply  of  long  lists  of  difficult  names,  but 
contain  something  far  beyond.  Over  and  over  again,  in 
some  layer  of  the  soil,  the  naturalist  finds  traces  of  animals 
now  extinct ; yet  give  him  one  vertebra,  and  he  will  form 
the  entire  structure.  So  these  names,  which  may  at  first 
appear  only  cold  petrifactions,  only  want  an  interpreter  to 
start  them  into  a new  life.  I need  not  remind  you  that 
Bethlehem  is  connected  with  history  and  prophecy  again 
and  again.  In  Psalm  xxxii.  6,  7,  we  seem  to  hear  echoes 
from  the  old  Church,  singing  ‘Wenite  adoremus.''  Then 
there  is  that  old  strain  again  in  the  beginning  of  the  Book 
of  Micah,  and  you  will  remember  it  in  connection  with 
the  histories  of  Saul  and  the  death  of  Rachel.  Yes,  and  in 
Bethlehem  was  the  birth  of  Him  who  made  it  the  most 
celebrated  place  of  all  except  Calvary.  As  we  hear  of 
Bethlehem  what  do  we  think  of?  Of  the  mystery  of  the 
Virgin's  womb,  of  that  true  humanity  which  was  born  there 
like  unto  us  in  form  and  feature,  like  us  in  all  but  sin,  and 
by  the  mystery  of  that  Holy  Incarnation  each  one  may 
find  pardon  and  peace. 

IV.  Lastly,  we  learn  the  law  which  pervades  the  life  of 
every  true  believer.  The  Book  of  Ruth  may  be  an  idyll, 
but  it  is  an  idyll  seen  in  a Divine  light.  Those  two  boys 
that  had  been  taken  from  the  widowed  mother  early — have 
we  never  seen  one  in  middle  life  like  Naomi,  with  her  hair 
flecked  with  grey,  and  who,  when  she  speaks,  can  but  say, 
“ Call  me  not  Naomi ; call  me  Mara,  for  the  Almighty  hath 
dealt  very  bitterly  with  me  ” ? No  doubt  the  history  is 
given  us  because  it  is  a specimen  of  the  Divine  guidance 
of  the  believer's  life.  We  may  learn  that  our  lives  are  not 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


loi 


random  things,  and  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  chance 
about  the  Christian’s  life.  This  story  of  Ruth,  like  every 
story  of  the  highest  sort,  would  lead  us  to  perfect  trust  in 
Him  who  wants  His  own  dear  children  to  lift  up  their 
hands  to  Him  when  in  darkness.  They  must  wrestle  in 
the  darkness  before  they  can  face  the  sunrise.  God  seems 
to  keep  silence  when  we  pray.  We  ask,  and  God  seems 
not  to  give  us  the  things  for  which  we  pray.  Ah ! but 
He  giv^es  us  far  better.  There  are  some  who  may  pray 
for  their  Mahlon  and  Chilion.  They  may  have  asked  for 
the  life  of  their  children,  and  God  answered  the  prayer  by 
giving  them  a long  life — even  life  for  ever  and  ever.  And 
some  Ruth  here  has  prayed  for  one  dearer  than  life,  and  he 
has  gone  down  in  youth  and  beauty,  and  now  the  grass 
waves  over  him,  for  God  has  taken  him.  And  then,  as 
time  has  gone  by,  she  has  found  a refuge  under  the  eternal 
wings,  a.  home  that  shall  not  pass  away.  Amidst  all 
weariness  she  can  sing, — 

“ Be  the  day  weary  or  be  the  day  long, 

It  ringeth  at  last  to  even-song.” 

W.  A. 


XIV.  David.  2 Sam.  xii  7.  Thou  art  the  manT 

Each  of  us  has  but  one  life  in  this  world,  a life  of  infinite 
possibilities,  alike  for  blessedness  and  for  ruin.  The  stake 
at  issue  is  so  tremendous,  that  every  human  life,  in  its 
struggle  against  destiny,  has  in  it  the  elements  of  the 
grandest  tragedy. 

“ Lo,  ’tis  a gala  night  ! Amidst 
The  lonesome  later  years, 

An  angel  throng,  bewinged,  bedight 
With  robes,  and  bathed  in  tears, 

Sit  in  a theatre  to  see 
A play  of  hopes  and  fears, 

While  the  orchestra  plays  fitfully 
The  music  of  the  spheres.” 

Out  of  the  pages  of  Scripture,  with  the  exception  of  two 
poets,  Dante  and  Shakespeare,  it  has  rarely  been  given  to 
any  mortal  man  to  indicate  anything  like  the  elements  of 
awfulness  and  pathos,  of  beauty  or  of  deadliness,  which 


102 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


may  He  in  the  story  of  any  man.  That  story  is  scarcely 
ever  truly  told.  There  are  but  two  autobiographies  in  the 
world — the  Confessions  of  St.  Augustine  and  the  Confes- 
sions of  Rousseau — which  the  world  has  taken  as  the 
genuine  efforts  of  any  man  to  exhibit  himself  as  he  really 
was.  Biographies  written  by  others  are  rarely  more  than 
a record  of  mere  external  events.  It  has  happened  to  us, 
I dare  say,  sometimes  to  read  the  biography  of  a man 
whom  we  knew  very  well  in  life,  and  in  doing  so  we 
may  generally  see  that  the  deepest  elements  of  the  man’s 
life,  as  we  knew  them,  have  been  untouched.  There  has 
been  no  attempt  to  explain  the  outward  manifestations ; 
the  keynote  of  all  the  discords  and  all  the  harmonies  has 
after  all  been  never  struck.  The  fact  that  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, we  have  the  lives  of  men  written  truthfully,  and  in 
their  essence,  however  briefly,  gives  to  the  Bible  no  little 
of  its  strange  power.  It  holds  up  the  mirror  to  nature, 
and  shows  us  human  souls  as  they  really  were,  with  none 
of  the  falsities,  none  of  the  suppressions,  none  of  the 
exaggerated  eulogy  and  the  tedious  triviality  of  modern 
biographies.  It  goes  to  the  heart  of  human  life.  It  pro- 
nounces with  sovereign  finality  the  one  decision  : “ He  did 
that  which  was  good,”  or  ‘‘  he  did  that  which  was  evil,  in 
the  sight  of  the  Lord.” 

We  may  mention  three  men  in  particular,  of  whom  full 
and  detailed  records  are  given  to  us.  Each  of  them  marked 
a great  epoch : each  of  them  was  a representative  man  : 
they  were  Moses,  David,  and  St.  Paul.  We  may  be  sure 
that  there  were  deep  reasons  why  these  men  should  have 
been  set  apart,  to  occupy,  with  their  story  and  with  their 
writings,  so  large  a space  in  the  Holy  Book.  We  will 
glance  at  some  of  the  facts  in  the  life  of  one  of  them, — 
David.  Perhaps  it  may  throw  light  on  some  truths  respect- 
ing sin,  and  penitence,  and  pardon. 

We  see  the  son  of  Jesse,  first,  a beautiful,  innocent,  noble 
boy,  with  boundless  capabilities  for  a holy  and  happy  life. 
A thousand  such  have  been  born  into  the  world,  with 
bodies  of  perfect  health  and  symmetry,  with  minds  of  quick 
intelligence,  with  spirits  capable  of  being  attuned  to  the 
sweetest  melodies  of  heaven.  Thousands  of  boys  have  been 
born  into  this  world,  for  whom  the  design  of  God — until 
they  themselves,  aided  by  the  fraud  and  subtlety  of  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


103 


devil,  or  man,  have  fatally  marred  it — was,  that  they 
should  grow  in  wisdom,  and  stature,  and  in  favour  with 
God  and  man  ; that  they  should  prove  a blessing  to  them- 
selves, and  to  the  world  into  which  they  have  been  born  ; 
that  their  path  should  be  as  the  path  of  the  just,  as  a 
shining  light  that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day.  Moses,  the  goodly  child  drawn  from  the  reeds  of 
the  river,  was  such  a boy.  Joseph,  pure  in  the  furnace  of 
trial,  was  such  a boy.  Samuel,  called  in  the  night-watches, 
before  the  light  of  the  Temple  had  yet  gone  out,  was  such 
a boy.  Daniel,  simple,  temperate,  holy,  in  the  midst  of  a 
cruel  and  corrupt  court,  was  such  a boy.  John  the  Baptist, 
the  stern,  strong  prophet  of  the  wilderness,  was  such  a boy. 
St.  Benedict,  and  St.  Francis,  and  St.  Bernard  were  such 
boys.  And  these,  and  many  others,  have  grown  up  into 
brave  and  godly  men,  in  city  or  in  wilderness,  in  prison  or 
on  the  throne  ; through  evil  report  or  good  report,  they 
have  held  fast,  even  to  the  end,  the  purity  and  the  glory  of 
the  human  life  which  God  had  given  them.  We  ask  of 
one  who  has  shown  such  early  promise, — 

“ And  has  that  early  hope  been  crowned  with  truth  ? 

Has  he  fulfilled  the  promise  of  his  youth  ? 

And  borne  untainted,  through  the  world’s  wide  field, 

Virtue’s  white  wreath,  and  Honour’s  stainless  shield?” 

Yes,  sometimes  he  has.  None  of  these,  indeed, — not  Moses, 
or  Joseph,  or  David,  or  St.  Bernard,  or  St.  Benedict,  or  any 
one  of  them, — was  perfect : the  world  has  seen  but  one 
sinless  boy,  and  one  sinless  man — the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
And  so  far  is  sinlessness  from  ensuring  that  earthly  pros- 
perity, of  which  most  men  think  most  of  all,  and  for  which 
they  spend  their  strength,  and  even  sell  their  souls,  in  vain, 
that  the  one  life  of  perfect  holiness  which  alone  the  world 
has  seen,  ended  amid  taunts,  and  gibes,  and  howls  of  exe- 
cration, from  priest,  and  Pharisee,  and  mob,  upon  the  bitter 
cross.  Men  usually  fix  upon  the  outer  facts  of  life  as 
being  of  its  essence.  Ah  ! let  us  learn  the  value  of  this 
estimate. 

‘‘Tis  not  the  whole  of  life  to  live, 

Nor  all  of  death  to  die.” 

Every  life,  the  good  as  well  as  the  bad,  has  its  necessary 
martyrdom  : the  only  important  thing  is,  how  the  martyr- 


104 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


dom  was  caused.  There  are  God’s  martyrs,  content  in  the 
very  fire,  to  whom  the  heavens  open  amid  all  their  toil  and 
anguish  from  a sinful  and  unregenerate  world.  There  are 
the  devil’s  martyrs,  who,  swallowing  his  gilded  bait,  are  rent 
by  his  lacerating  hook,  and  whom  he  lays  contemptuously 
on  the  ground  to  gasp  and  die.  There  are  those  who 
die  by  their  self-inflicted  martyrdoni,  the  souls  who  sell 
themselves,  the  multitudes  who  commit  moral  suicide  by 
the  edge  or  the  poison  of  the  passions,  which,  instead  of 
mastering,  they  encourage.  There  are  the  martyrdoms  of 
healing  retribution,  those  whom  God  makes  sick  with 
smiting,  but  only  that  they  may  repent,  and  who,  even  in 
the  drowning  waters,  seize  hold  of  His  saving  hand. 

It  is  to  this  last  class  that  David  belongs.  He  fell 
grievously,  and  he  was  chastised,  because  he  was  a son. 
He  sinned,  and  he  suffered.  He  was  saved,  indeed,  but  it 
was  so  as  by  fire.  We  see  him,  first,  a happy  boy  amid  his 
sheep-folds,  in  the  glow  of  health,  the  dew  on  his  gracious 
golden  hair,  the  fresh  wind  of  the  wilderness  in  his  ruddy 
cheek,  as  he  faithfully  performs  his  narrow  duties,  and, 
with  the  dauntlessness  of  a pure  heart,  slays  the  lion  and 
the  bear.  And  as  he  thus  fed  his  flock  like  a shepherd, 
afar  from  cities,  their  strife,  their  squalor,  their  temptations, 
desiring  nothing  but  the  yellow  dates  from  the  palm-tree 
and  the  water  from  the  brook,  he  felt  and  sang : “ The 
Lord  is  my  Shepherd  ; I shall  not  want.  He  maketh  me 
to  lie  down  in  green  pastures  ; He  leadeth  me  beside  the 
still  waters.  He  restoreth  my  soul ; He  leadeth  me  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness  for  His  name’s  sake.”  Happy, 
perhaps,  for  David,  had  he  never  changed  that  way  of  life 
in  those  blessed  and  simple  years ! In  those  days  his 
thoughts  were  pleasant  as  roses,  and  pure  as  the  dew  upon 
their  leaves. 

“ Love  had  he  found  in  huts  where  poor  men  lie. 

His  daily  teachers  had  been  woods  and  rills. 

The  silence  that  is  in  the  starry  sky, 

The  sleep  that  is  among  the  lonely  hills.’' 

But  man  does  not  choose  his  own  destiny.  The  small, 
sweet  idyll  ended.  One  day  the  boy  is  summoned  from 
his  sheep  in  the  wilderness  to  his  father’s  house.  There 
he  finds  that  the  grey-haired  prophet  of  his  race  has  come 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


105 


to  the  family  sacrifice.  All  his  stalwart  brothers  pass  before 
the  seer,  but,  bold  as  they  are,  and  like  the  children  of  a 
king,  Samuel,  who  is  no  longer  to  be  deceived  by  tallness 
of  stature,  feels  that  the  Lord  has  not  chosen  these,  and 
pours  the  fragrant  oil  of  consecration  on  the  head  of  the 
boy  who  was  despised  by  his  brethren.  Another  day  he 
is  summoned  to  the  tent  where  the  mighty  Saul  is  sitting 
in  moody  madness,  troubled  by  an  evil  spirit  from  the  Lord, 
and  nothing  but  the  sweet  notes  of  the  boy’s  harp  can 
dispel  that  agonizing  gloom.  Another  day  makes  him 
spring  into  the  hero  and  the  darling  of  his  nation.  He 
visits  his  brethren  in  the  camp  ; and,  strong  in  the  strength 
of  the  Lord, — because  his  heart  is  pure  alone  of  the  house 
of  Israel, — with  no  other  weapon  but  his  sling  and  the 
smooth  stones  of  the  brook,  he  slays  the  giant  champion, 
and  puts  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  Philistines.  From  that 
day  forth,  the  innocent  shepherd-life  is  over.  He  is  a 
warrior ; he  bears  the  armour  of  the  king ; he  is  sent  on 
perilous  enterprises  ; he  sits  at  the  king’s  table  ; he  marries 
the  king’s  daughter ; the  king’s  son  loves  him  as  his  own 
soul,  with  a love  passing  the  love  of  women  ; the  maidens 
of  Israel,  with  timbrels  and  dances,  extol  his  fame  and  his 
prowess,  even  above  that  of  the  warrior  Saul.  But,  while 
the  youths  of  Israel,  doubtless,  envied  his  glory,  he  found, 
even  thus  early,  how  rare  it  is  in  life  that  there  is  a line  of 
light  in  the  life  of  any  man,  without  many  a line  of  dark- 
ness to  intercept  and  close  it  in.  Saul  eyes  him  with  a 
deep  smouldering  malice,  which  bursts  every  now  and  then 
into  fits  of  murderous  fury.  At  last  he  is  forced  to  flee 
from  this  hated  and  imperilled  life.  Then  he  becomes  an 
outlaw,  the  head  of  a band  of  men,  who,  but  for  his  strong 
influence,  might  have  been  lawless  freebooters.  He  is 
mixed  up  of  necessity  with  war  and  raids  and  forays. 
His  hand  is  stained  with  blood  ; but,  in  spite  of  all,  he  still 
holds  fast  to  the  law  of  his  God.  He  controls  his  followers  ; 
he  restrains  his  passions ; he  bears  his  trials  with  heroic 
cheerfulness  ; he  works  for  honourable  ends ; he  takes  no 
revenge.  Loyal  to  the  last,  he  spares  again  and  again  the 
life  of  his  unrelenting  foe.  Gallant  and  chivalrous,  in  the 
robber’s  den  as  in  the  king’s  palace,  he  still  does  not  forget 
the  God  of  his  youth,  nor  forsake  the  covenant  of  his  God* 
And  so,  at  last,  he  too  becomes  a king.  God  says  to 


io6  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


him  : “ Thou  shalt  be  the  shepherd  of  My  people  Israel.’* 
From  the  sheepfold,  from  following  the  ewes  great  with 
young  ones,  God  took  him  that  he  might  feed  Jacob,  His 
people,  and  Israel,  His  inheritance.  And  here,  too,  he  is 
not  at  first  found  wanting.  He  shows  himself  a brave,  a 
faithful,  a magnanimous  king.  He  still  shows,  in  his  lofty 
place,  the  wisdom  which  adversity  had  bred.  What  our 
Alfred  was,  as  a civilizer  and  a law-giver,  what  Edward 
HI.  was,  as  a statesman  and  a soldier,  what  gallant  Henry 
V.  was,  as  a favourite  of  the  people  after  the  glory  of 
Agincourt,  that  David  became  to  the  united  tribes  of 
Israel  and  Judah  in  the  zenith  of  their  glory.  Here,  then 
he  stood  at  last  on  the  summit  of  human  wishes.  The 
despised  youngest-born  of  his  family,  the  rude  shepherd- 
boy  of  Bethlehem,  has  become  a hero,  and  a hero-king. 
And  the  king  conquers  all  his  enemies  round  about,  and 
builds  his  palace,  and  brings  the  Ark  to  Mount  Zion,  and 
raises  as  his  capital  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  to  be  famous 
thenceforth  for  ever. 

There  is  no  need  to  dwell  on  the  story  of  David’s  shame- 
ful fall.  You  all  know  it.  He  was  sitting  on  his  palace 
roof  That  cool  place  of  retirement  had  often  been 
hallowed  by  the  melodies  of  his  better  thoughts.  From 
thence,  as  he  watched  the  birds  streaming  towards  the 
sunset,  with  their  golden  feathers  and  silver  wings,  he  had 
sung  : ‘‘  Oh,  that  I had  the  wings  of  a dove,  for  then 
would  I flee  away,  and  be  at  rest ! ” There,  as  he  gazed  on 
the  starry  midnight,  he  had  broken  forth  in  the  immortal 
Psalm  : “ The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the 
firmament  showeth  His  handiwork.”  Far  different  was  his 
mood  in  this  evil  hour.  He  was  secure  and  full-fed  ; and 
his  thoughts  were  base,  and  sensual,  and  vile.  Doubtless, 
the  prayers  which  might  have  saved  him  had  been  for- 
gotten, or  but  carelessly  uttered.  Doubtless,  his  service  in 
the  house  of  God  had  become  but  one  of  dead  orthodoxy 
and  self-satisfied  form,  no  better  than  the  hawk’s  shriek,  or 
the  lake’s  murmur  in  the  summer  eve.  But  that  was  why 
evil  thoughts  and  impure  desires  had  entered  into  the 
temple  of  his  heart.  Satan  wakes,  though  man  sleeps,  and, 
seizing  the  opportunity  given  him  by  the  undefended  soul, 
Satan  flung  upon  it  a fiery  arrow,  which  should  rankle  and 
agonize  until  the  end.  The  sin  of  David  ; the  root  of  it  in 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


107 


unguarded  passions  and  careless  hours  ; the  awful  warning 
which  it  involves  ; the  necessity  of  the  girded  loins  and  the 
burning  lantern  ; the  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  one 
sin  paves  the  road  for  a multitude  of  other  sins  which  are 
worse  than  the  first ; the  glimpse  that  it  gives  us  into  the 
bottomless  abyss  which  the  sinful  soul  cleaves  before  its 
own  wandering  feet : all  this  is  full  of  instruction,  but  it  is 
not  our  subject.  We  have  now  to  glance  for  a moment 
rather  at  the  consequences  of  the  sin,  at  the  remorse 
which  followed,  at  the  pardon  by  which  it  was  at  last 
healed. 

It  is,  as  you  know,  the  awful  property  of  a great  sin  to 
open  the  eyes.  The  man  who  has  never  before  suspected 
the  depths  of  his  own  vileness^  sees,  as  under  the  lurid 
glare  of  a lightning  flash,  what  he  is,  what  he  has  been, 
how  low  he  has  sunk,  to  what  awful,  inevitable  retribution 
he  has  laid  himself  bare  ; but  this  does  not  always  happen 
at  once.  David  s eyes  were  not  opened  by  his  guilt  and 
treachery.  Rather,  they  were  sealed  in  penal  blindness. 
He  did  not  feel  those  stains  of  infamy  which  ought  to  have 
burned  into  his  conscience  like  flakes  of  fire.  Conse- 
quences waited,  the  punishment  was  delayed,  the  doom 
was  pronounced,  but  the  execution  was  deferred.  Bath- 
sheba  was  in  his  house  ; Uriah  lay  dead  under  the  walls 
of  Rabbah,  basely  deserted,  treacherously  murdered,  by 
the  king  for  whom  his  brave  sword  had  been  drawn. 
David,  the  man  whom  God  had  chosen,  was  a murderer 
and  an  adulterer,  a vulgar  Eastern  despot  stained  with  lust 
and  blood ; yet  his  guilty  soul  did  not  awake  from  this 
strange,  drugged  sleep.  Everything  was  going  on  as  be- 
fore. No  lightning  flashed,  no  thunder  rolled,  no  earth- 
quake rocked  the  ground  at  Jerusalem.  All  men  still 
bowed  before  the  king,  and  as  he  stood  in  the  Temple 
service,  among  the  white-robed  Levites,  and  amid  the 
sounding  of  the  silver  trumpets,  he  did  not  remember  that 
he  had  forfeited  the  clean  heart  and  the  free  spirit;  that  he 
was  no  longer  what  he  had  been  ; that  he  was  worthy  no 
longer  of  standing  among  God’s  chosen  ones,  and  that  he, 
the  king  of  the  chosen  people,  was  a vile  and  guilty  man. 
Not  only  did  awakenment  not  come  to  David  instantly  ; 
it  did  not  even  come  gradually.  God  left  him  to  see  if 
conscience  would  awaken,  and  it  did  not  awaken  ; and  it 


io8  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


was  only  when  the  king  was  living  on  in  contented  crime, 
guilty  and  impenitent,  that  God  sent  Nathan  to  him,  to 
tell  him  that  parable  of  the  ewe  lamb.  It  kindled  in 
David  a flash  of  his  old  nobleness  ; and,  when  he  had  in- 
dignantly condemned,  out  of  his  own  mouth,  his  own  far 
more  heinous  iniquity,  then,  with  a terrible  voice  of  most 
just  judgment,  with  stern  face  and  pointed  finger,  the  seer 
broke  out  with  his  passionate  message  : “ Thou  art  the 
man  ! 

Then,  indeed,  David  saw  it  all.  The  scales  dropped 
from  his  eyes.  He  saw  what  he  was,  and  what  he  had 
done.  God  had  convicted  him.  He  made  no  excuses. 
He  stood  abashed  and  confounded  before  men,  before  God, 
before  his  own  conscience,  an  ashamed,  self-condemned, 
and  miserable  man.  Deep,  earnest,  sincere,  intense,  ago- 
nizing was  his  repentance.  You  read  the  records  of  it  in 
his  seven  penitential  psalms  ; you  hear  it  most  of  all  in 
the  sobbing  of  the  broken  heart  in  the  51st  Psalm.  And 
because  he  repented  from  his  heart,  abhorred  himself, 
abhorred  his  sin,  amended  his  ways,  therefore  God  forgave 
him.  He  gave  him  back  the  clean  heart  and  the  free  spirit. 
He  took  not  wholly  His  Holy  Spirit  from  him.  Yes  ; but 
remark  that,  at  the  same  time,  God  taught  him,  and  through 
him  taught  us,  and  taught  the  world,  that  remission  of 
sins  is  no  condonation  of  sin’s  earthly  consequences.  It 
is  against  the  ordinances  of  Providence,  it  is  against  the 
interests  of  men,’'  said  a well-known  statesman,  that  im- 
mediate reparation  should  be  possible  when  long  evils  have 
been  at  work  ; and  one  of  the  greatest  safeguards  against 
misdoing  would  be  removed,  if  at  any  moment  the  con- 
sequences of  misdoing  could  be  repaired.”  If  David  had 
given  occasion  to  the  enemies  of  God  to  blaspheme,  he  has 
also  given  occasion  to  take  awful  warning,  for  God  did  not 
spare  him.  It  availed  him  nothing  that  he  was  a poet,  a 
warrior,  a king  of  the  chosen  nation,  the  builder  of  Jeru- 
salem. It  availed  him  nothing  that  he  had  been  the 
innocent  shepherd-boy,  the  gallant  chief,  the  national  de- 
liverer ; nothing,  that  the  maidens  of  Israel  had  sung  his 
praises,  and  the  priests  of  Israel  chanted  his  holy  songs. 
God  suffered  the  consequences  of  his  sin  to  uprush  over 
his  head  in  deluge.  The  freight  of  his  bark  of  life,  his 
peace,  his  fortune,  his  crown,  and  his  happiness,  went  by 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


109 


the  board  with  one  deadly  crash,  amidst  a chaos  of  waves 
and  storms.  From  that  day  the  sword  never  departed 
from  his  house.  From  that  hour  dark  spirits  haunted 
his  pillow,  and  unclean  wings  flapped  about  his  roof.  His 
sons,  beautiful  and  bad,  had  not  seen  him  restrain  his  pas- 
sions, and  they  did  not  restrain  theirs.  He  had  wounded 
others  in  their  tenderest  affections,  and  he  was  wounded 
in  his  own.  He  had  humiliated  a woman,  and  his  own 
daughter  was  humiliated.  He  had  taken  the  wife  of 
another  in  secret,  and  /its  wives  were  taken  from  him 
openly,  and  in  the  sun.  As  he  sinned,  in  like  manner 
he  suffered.  There  was  a frightful  likeness  between  the 
iniquity  and  its  consequences.  He  had  slain  Uriah  by 
treachery,  and  by  treachery  his  own  son  was  murdered. 
He  had  lifted  his  heel  against  his  friend,  and  his  own  friend 
lifted  the  heel  against  him.  He  had  brutally  invaded  the 
sanctities  of  a home,  and  the  sanctities  of  his  own  home 
were  brutally  laid  waste.  He  was  in  the  power  of  the 
rough  general  who  knew  his  guilty  secret  Shimei  openly 
cursed  him,  and  flung  dust  at  him.  His  favourite — his 
darling  Absalom — revolted  against  him,  and  drove  him 
away,  weeping  all  day  long,  up  the  slopes  of  Olivet.  And 
from  the  heart  thus  sorely  wounded,  from  the  affections 
thus  terribly  devastated,  from  the  dignity  thus  vilely 
trampled  into  the  dust,  at  last,  when  the  rebel,  and  the 
darling  of  his  soul,  was  slain,  in  defiance  of  his  orders,  in 
contempt  of  his  agonized  entreaties,  there  was  wrung  at 
last  from  him  the  exceeding  great  and  bitter  cry,  as  he 
went  up  to  his  chamber  over  the  gate,  and  wept,  and  as  he 
went  he  cried,  “ O my  son  Absalom  ! My  son,  my  son 
Absalom  ! would  God  I had  died  for  thee.  O Absalom, 
my  son,  my  son  ! ” 

So  did  the  sun  of  David’s  house  set  into  obscure  dark- 
ness ; and  so,  while  it  was  yet  day,  it  sank  slowly  down 
into  seas  of  blood.  Surely  his  life  and  fate  may  teach  us 
at  least  these,  among  many  lessons  : one  is,  that,  though 
we  repent,  we  must  not  expect  the  physical,  the  natural, 
the  earthly  consequences  of  God’s  broken  laws  to  be  done 
away.  Even  for  David  it  was  not  so.  His  sun  never 
shone  again.  No  more  peace  ; no  more  victories  ; no 
more  glory  ; no  more  maidens’  songs ; no  more  sweet, 
peaceful  home  for  him  ; “ no  poppy,  nor  mandragora,  nor 


no 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


all  the  drowsy  syrups  of  the  world/*  could  bring  him  back 
the  sweet  sleep  which  he  had  owned  before.  Henceforth 
the  poet,  the  hero,  the  king,  is  a broken  man.  Another  of 
his  sons,  his  much-loved  Adonijah,  revolts  from  him  ; and 
then  the  miserable  scene  ends  in  the  resignation  of  his 
throne,  and  the  chilling  of  his  blood.  Old  and  unregretted, 
he  shivers  miserably  into  his  grave,  and  with  scarce  so 
much  as  the  cry,  “The  king  is  dead ! **  rises  the  glad  shout 
for  another,  “ Long  live  the  king ! ** 

But  it  is  yet  a sadder  thing  to  see  that  neither  do  the 
moral,  the  spiritual  consequences  of  a great  sin  end  with 
itself.  A man  may  rise  after  his  fall,  but  he  rises  as  a 
cripple.  Henceforth  we  read  of  David  scarcely  anything 
but  dubious  acts.  There  is  the  strange  treatment  of  Me- 
phibosheth,  the  son  of  Jonathan,  who  had  loved  him  with 
such  heroic  love.  There  is  the  vindictive  behest  to  Solo- 
mon about  his  general  Joab.  There  is  the  shockingly 
mean  command  to  bring  to  the  grave  the  hoar  hairs  of 
Shimei,  whom  he  so  ostentatiously  pardoned.  There  is 
the  horrid  story  of  the  sacrifice  of  seven  of  Saul’s  sons, 
and  among  them  the  youths,  over  whom  Rizpah,  the 
daughter  of  Aiah,  watched,  as  they  lay  dead  in  the  dim 
and  lion-haunted  ways.  One  would  think  it  was  some 
mean  Arab  sheik  bequeathing  his  blood-feuds  to  an 
avenger,  and  not  the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel.  Morally,  as 
well  as  in  all  other  things,  David,  though  repentant,  though 
forgiven,  yet  shaken  and  weakened  by  his  fall,  became  the 
wreck  of  his  former  self. 

Then,  lastly,  notice  the  falling  of  all  beauty  into  dark- 
ness, and  of  all  glory  into  dust.  Notice  that  all  human 
beauty,  valour,  wit,  genius,  success,  glory,  are  vanity  of 
vanities  ; that  man  is  nothing,  and  that  God  is  all.  Great 
David  died  as  the  fool  dieth.  So  died  the  glorious  young 
Greek  Alexander,  who  conquered  the  world.  So  died  the 
wise  Henry  II.,  cursing  his  rebellious  sons.  So  died  our 
gallant  Plantagenet,  the  hero  of  Cre^y  and  Poictiers, 
“ mighty  victor,  mighty  lord.”  Low  on  his  funeral  couch 
he  lies — no  pitying  hand,  no  tear  to  grace  his  obsequies. 
So  died  the  last  great  conqueror  of  modern  days,  Napo- 
leon, on  a petty  island,  squabbling  with  a poor  English 
sailor  about  etiquette  and  about  champagne.  Man  is  as 
great  as  he  is  in  God’s  sight,  and  he  is  no  greater. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


Ill 


Have,  then,  these  truths  no  lessons  for  us  ? If  David 
reaped  as  he  had  sown,  shall  not  you  reap  as  you  have 
sown  ? Shall  not  you,  young  men  and  young  women,  reap 
the  whirlwind,  if  you  sow  the  wind  ? Shall  you  not  reap 
misery,  and  anguish,  and  moral  deterioration  of  heart,  and 
deadness  of  spirit,  and  sin,  springing  up  as  dragons’  teeth 
in  Protean  forms  of  grief  and  punishment,  if  you  sow  to 
the  world  and  to  the  flesh  ? Yes  ; and  yet  all  this,  and 
more  than  this,  you  are  able  to  bear  if  you  can  feel,  as, 
after  all,  David  did  feel,  that  in  the  midst  of  all,  and  in 
spite  of  all,  though  he  walked  even  on  earth  amid  the 
purging  flames,  and  felt  their  scorching  agony,  he  could 
feel,  as  we  may  feel,  that,  for  the  sake  of  David’s  Son  and 
David’s  Lord,  who  died  for  us,  he  still  had  the  blessedness 
of  him  whose  iniquity  is  forgiven,  and  whose  sin  is  covered  ; 
that  through  whatever  shames,  and  agonies,  and  moral 
failures,  God  would  deliver  his  soul  from  hell.  His  darling 
from  the  power  of  the  dog  ; and  that  He  who  is  Life, 
who  rose  from  the  dead,  would  not  leave  his  soul  in  hell, 
neither  would  He  suffer  His  holy  one  to  see  corruption. 

F.  W.  F. 


XV.  The  Failure  of  Elijah’s  Faith,  i Kings  xix. 

13.  And,  behold,  there  came  a voice  unto  him,  and  said. 

What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ? ” 

It  has  been  more  than  once  observed  that  some  of  the 
men  who,  as  we  say,  most  distinctly  leave  a mark  upon 
their  age  are  liable  to  great  changes  of  spirits,  alter- 
nating between  buoyant  enthusiasm  and  something  like 
despair.  At  first  sight  it  seems  as  if  the  resources  of 
human  nature  are  after  all  very  limited  : that  which  is 
expended  in  one  quarter  must  be  withdrawn  from  another. 
The  waves  which  raise  their  crests  so  proudly  above  the 
accustomed  level  of  the  ocean  imply,  as  we  know,  each  one 
of  them,  a corresponding  interval  of  depression.  As  the 
Psalmist  says  in  his  bold  hyperbole,  “as  high  as  the 
heavens,  and  down  to  the  valleys  beneath,”  of  the  rude 
experience  of  his  countrymen  in  the  Phcenician  waters,  so 
it  is  often  with  the  life  of  men,  and  especially  of  public 
men.  The  great  effort  which  rivets  the  attention,  which 
perhaps  gives  an  impression  of  extraordinary  strength  or 


II2 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


capacity,  is  often  dearly  purchased  by  succeeding  hours  of 
depression  and  weakness. 

Something  of  this  kind  was  the  case  with  the  late  Bishop 
Wilberforce.  The  buoyant  spirits,  the  generous  enthusiasm, 
which  made  him  what  he  was  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  senate, 
at  the  public  meeting,  was  dearly  paid  for  by  periods  of 
great  despondency,  when  all  things  seemed  dark,  when 
nothing  seemed  possible,  when  he  was  perhaps  less  equal 
to  the  demands  of  duty  than  very  inferior  men. 

I.  From  this  characteristic  of  enthusiastic  natures  the 
mighty  prophet  who  is  before  us  was  not  by  any  means 
exempt. 

So  great  was  Elijah’s  power  both  over  men  and  over 
nature  that  in  after  ages  his  countrymen  came  to  regard 
him  as  an  altogether  preterhuman  personage,  whose  con- 
duct was  not  a precedent  for,  or  a sample  of,  that  of  ordinary 
men.  In  later  times  this  idea  of  Elijah  was  enhanced  by 
Malachi’s  prophecy  about  his  expected  coming  before  “ the 
great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord.” 

So  that  when  John  the  Baptist  appeared  it  was  a com- 
mon opinion  in  Palestine  that  “ this  was  Elias  which  was 
for  to  come.”  When,  then,  St.  James  quotes  Elijah  as  an 
example  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  he  prefaces  his  argument 
by  what  might  seem  to  us  before  consideration  a very  ob- 
vious and  trite  remark,  but  a remark  which  was  by  no 
means  unheeded  by  St.  James’s  first  readers.  He  says 
that  ‘‘  Elias  was  a man  of  like  passions  as  we  are ; ” Elijah, 
he  means,  had  his  share  of  impulse  and  of  weakness  ; and 
therefore  the  power  of  his  prayers  is  an  encouragement  for 
others  than  himself. 

Now,  that  Elijah  was  what  St.  James  thus  said  of  him, 
is  plain.  At  Carmel  he  was  at  the  height  of  his  moral 
ascendency,  of  his  supernatural  force.  True,  since  his  first 
message  from  God  to  Ahab  he  had  been  a fugitive,  he  had 
been  fed  by  the  ravens  in  the  torrent  brook  of  the  Cherith  ; 
he  had  been  dependent  on  the  charity  of  the  devout 
widow  in  the  heathen  town  of  Zarephath.  But  no 
sooner  does  he  return  to  the  soil  of  Israel  than  he  asserts 
his  astonishing  power  over  all  who  come  in  contact  with 
him  ; for  he,  too,  in  his  measure,  had  a share  in  that  pro- 
mise to  the  King  Messiah,  “ Be  Thou  Ruler  in  the  midst, 
even  among  thine  enemies.”  Obadiah,  Ahab’s  trusted  min- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


113 


ister,  falls  awe-struck  before  him  ; Ahab  himself,  who  has 
spared  no  pains  to  compass  his  death,  acts  as  a man  might 
act  under  a resistless  spell,  and  submissively,  though  with 
evident  reluctance,  carries  out  his  orders  ; at  his  bidding  the 
eight  hundred  and  fifty  prophets  of  the  newly  imported 
nature-worship  of  the  Phoenicians  are  marshalled  upon 
Carmel,  and  he  confronts  them  in  his  solitary  weakness, 
in  his  solitary  strength. 

And  then  follows  the  appeal  to  the  people  to  choose 
between  Baal  and  the  one  true  God,  the  challenge  to  the 
prophets  of  Baal,  their  long  but  fruitless  pleadings  pro- 
longed from  the  early  morning  till  the  evening  sacrifice 
that  Baal  would  somehow  own  their  offering, — pleadings 
accompanied  by  frantic  self-mutilation,  and  redoubled  as 
they  listen  to  the  prophet’s  terrible  irony  ; and  then,  after 
their  final  failure,  Elijah’s  measured  preparations  in  accord- 
ance v/ith  the  forgotten  principles  of  the  ancient  ritual,  his 
solemn  invocation  of  the  God  of  Israel,  the  fire  from 
heaven,  the  adoring  confession  of  the  awe-struck  people, 
“ The  Lord  He  is  the  God,  the  Lord  He  is  the  God,”  and 
the  terrible  extermination  of  the  idolators. 

Taken  altogether,  there  is  no  other  scene  like  it  in  the 
Bible.  Elijah  on  Carmel  represents  a man’s  moral  ascen- 
dency over  his  brother  man  in  the  name  and  for  the  glory 
of  a religious  truth  carried  to  its  very  highest  point  of 
effective  power. 

And  now  the  scene  has  changed.  Elijah  is  not  on 
Carmel,  but  on  Horeb.  The  idolatrous  priesthood  was 
indeed  exterminated  ; but  Jezebel  remained.  She  had  her 
projects  and  her  means  of  vengeance,  and  the  prophet 
who  had  triumphed  when  confronted  by  the  king,  by  the 
court,  by  the  people,  by  the  whole  hierarchy  of  the  false 
religion,  must  escape  if  he  would  save  his  life  from  the 
implacable  fanaticism  of  the  queen.  He  first  fled  to  Beer- 
sheba,  far  away  to  the  south,  beyond  the  frontiers  of  Israel, 
a town  indeed  of  Judah,  but  on  the  very  confines  of  the 
wilderness  beyond. 

He  left  the  boy  who  waited  on  him,  in  the  town,  veiling 
as  we  all  of  us  do,  his  moments  of  extreme  depression  even 
from  those  who  knew  him  best,  and  then  he  wandered  out 
despairingly  into  the  desert,  and  prayed  that  he  might  die. 

And  here  he  was  braced  for  his  journey  by  food  which 

T 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


114 


was  brought  him  by  no  human  hands — a type,  as  it  was 
always  thought  by  the  Christian  Church  of  the  early  ages, 
of  that  strengthening  and  refreshing  of  the  soul  by  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ  which  enables  the  Christian  pilgrim  to 
cross  life’s  long  desert  on  his  way  to  his  true  home. 

Still  in  deep  depression,  after  a journey  of  forty  days, 
Elijah  reached  the  sacred  mountain,  the  scene,  the  very 
scene,  of  the  great  rev^elation  to  Moses.  Its  hallowed 
associations,  its  dreary  and  awful  solitudes,  were  in  keep- 
ing with  the  prophet’s  thoughts. 

He  entered  into  a cave,  a grotto  which  was  associated,  it 
is  likely,  by  the  local  tradition  with  the  name  and  with  the 
work  of  Moses ; and  he  gave  himself  up  to  the  thoughts 
which  crowded  so  darkly  on  his  mind.  Why  had  he  suc- 
ceeded so  well  only  that  success  should  issue,  as  it  seemed, 
after  all  in  failure  ? Why  had  such  strength  as  had  been 
vouchsafed  him  been  followed  by  such  weakness  } Was 
not  everything  forfeited  for  which  he  had  struggled  t Was 
not  his  ministry  closing  in  discomfiture  and  in  shame, 
while  the  insolent  and  idolatrous  queen  and  her  weak  and 
wicked  husband  were  completing  the  ruin  of  the  religion 
of  Israel } What  was  the  use  of  attempting  anything 
further  ? All  was  really  lost ; and  those  who,  like  himself, 
had  given  their  all  to  the  losing  cause,  had  only  to  bury 
what  might  remain  of  life  in  sadness  and  obscurity.  These, 
or  such  as  these,  were  his  thoughts,  when  solemnly,  and 
once  and  again,  the  searching  question  came  to  him, 
“ What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ? ” 

II.  Observe  here  how  God  discovers  himself  to  Elijah. 

The  Word  of  the  Lord  came  to  him,  and  He  said  unto 
him.  What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ? ” The  Word  of  the 
Lord  that  Word  which  was  lodged  in  Elijah,  that  Word  of 
which  he  was  the  instrument,  the  organ,  and  which  he  had 
proclaimed  so  vividly,  so  terribly  to  others,  now  turned  its 
voice,  I had  almost  dared  to  say  its  eye,  in  upon  himself. 
This  Word  or  message  which  the  prophet  bears  is,  we  thus 
see,  not  his  servant,  but  his  master.  It  is  not  a work  of  his 
own  mind  which  he  may  control,  or  manipulate,  or  silence 
at  pleasure.  It  is  a truth  which,  if  it  be  in  him,  is  yet 
utterly  independent  of  him,  and  to  which  he  himself  owes 
an  obedience  no  less  than  does  the  very  humblest  of  his 
hearers. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


115 


The  prophet  of  old,  the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  at  the 
present  day,  is  always  the  servant  of  the  truth  which  he 
proclaims  ; and  he  carries  it  for  his  own  “ reproof,  correc- 
tion, instruction  in  righteousness,’'  no  less  than  for  that  of 
his  people.  To  the  question,  “What  doest  thou  here?” 
Elijah  could  not  but  reply.  It  was — so  it  seemed  to  the 
prophet — it  was  for  his  zeal  for  the  cause  of  God  ; it  was 
his  tragic  despair,  it  was  his  isolation,  it  was  his  sense,  his 
crushing  sense,  of  impotence  and  of  failure  which  had 
brought  him  thus  to  Horeb.  “ I have  been  very  jealous,” 
he  said,  “for  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts;  for  the  children  of 
Israel  have  forsaken  Thy  covenant,  thrown  down  Thine 
altars,  and  slain  Thy  prophets  with  the  sword  ; and  I, 
even  I only,  am  left ; and  they  seek  my  life,  to  take  it 
away.”  And  this  answer  is  neither  accepted  nor  rejected. 
It  is  passed  by  most  significantly  without  a word  of  re- 
proval or  of  rebuke. 

If  the  prophet  would  know  more  about  God,  about  him- 
self, he  must  come  forth  from  the  cave,  he  must  stand  face 
to  face  on  the  mountain  side  with  the  Infinite.  And  then, 
as  centuries  before,  on  this  very  spot  with  Moses,  the 
Lord  passed  by.” 

The  Author  of  nature,  who  is  also  the  Lord  of  con- 
science, often  speaks  to  conscience  through  the  changing 
aspects  of  nature ; and  thus  nature  is  a book  written  in 
characters  which  those  who  live  in  communion  with  God 
know  how  to  read.  For  them  the  wind,  the  earthquake, 
the  lightning,  are  not  merely  physical  phenomena,  forces 
or  effects  of  which  they  can  or  cannot,  as  the  case  may  be, 
furnish  themselves  with  an  adequate  scientific  account, 
they  are  outward  signs  of  invisible  realities  that  belong  to 
the  human  and  to  the  moral  world. 

Nature  is  a robe  of  beauty,  distinct,  indeed,  from  the 
Creator  Himself,  since  it  is  the  work  of  His  hands,  but 
luminous  with  the  revelations  of  His  mind  and  of  His  will. 
What  was  “ the  great  and  strong  wind  that  rent  the  moun- 
tains, and  brake  in  pieces  the  rocks  before  the  Lord  ” but 
a natural  figure  of  the  tempestuous  impulse  which  had 
carried  the  prophet  onward  ever  since  he  left  in  his  early 
youth  his  native  hills  of  Gilead  ? What  was  the  earth- 
quake with  its  deep  warning  mutlerings,  with  its  violent 
shocks  of  upheaval  and  of  ruin  crashing  through  the  wild 


Ii6  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


valleys  around  him,  but  an  image  of  convulsions  of  which 
Elijah's  own  soul,  and  many  another  soul  around,  had  been 
the  scene  ? What  was  the  lightning  playing  incessantly 
around  the  prophet  on  the  mountain  side  but  a reflection 
of  the  heaven-sent  burning  zeal  which  had  been  from  the 
first  the  spirit  of  his  work  and  of  his  life  ? 

And  yet  as  the  wind,  and  the  earthquake,  and  the  fire 
succeeded  each  other,  the  prophet  felt  that  they  no  longer 
meant  for  him  what  they  would  have  meant  as  he  stood  of 
old  on  Carmel.  They  were  signs  of  states  of  mind  which 
once  seemed  instinct  with  the  life  of  God,  but  which  now, 
for  the  first  time,  he  knew  to  be  without  it.  ‘‘The  Lord 
was  not  in  the  wind."  Strong  religious  impulse  may  be 
more  than  half  physical,  a matter  of  temperament,  a 
matter  of  constitution.  Earthly  passions  in  some  natures 
may  take  this  precise  form  ; the  language,  the  intended, 
the  professed  objec|s  may  be  of  heaven,  the  spirit  of  earth. 
Even  though  mountains  of  opposition  are  rent  by  it,  even 
though  rocks  of  prejudice  are  broken  in  pieces  by  it,  and 
changes  brought  about  which  fill  the  thoughts  of  men,  and 
which  live  in  the  pages  of  history,  yet  it  may  be  that  the 
agency  which  effects  all  this  is  in  itself  destitute  of  any- 
thing that  is  properly  Divine,  that  “ the  Lord  is  not  in  the 
wind." 

“ And  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  earthquake."  Spasmodic 
terror  may  be  only  terror  ; the  thought,  or  sight,  or  imme- 
diate apprehension  of  death  may  convulse,  does  convulse  to. 
its  very  depths  the  human  soul.  But  mere  mental  agitation 
may  be  only  desperate.  “ The  fear  of  the  Lord,"  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  fear  of  anything  else,  “is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom."  Whether  the  Lord  is  or  is  not  in  these  great 
earthquakes  of  the  soul  depends,  generally  speaking,  upon 
the  soul's  previous  relations  with  Him. 

“And  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  fire."  He  had  been  in 
the  burning  bush ; He  was,  in  after  ages,  in  the  fiery  tongues 
at  Pentecost.  He  was  not  in  the  fire  which  played  around 
Elijah  on  Horeb.  Religious  passion  carried  to  the  highest 
point  of  enthusiasm  is  a great  agency  in  human  life  ; but 
religious  passion  may  easily  be  too  inconsiderate,  too 
truculent,  too  entirely  wanting  in  tenderness  and  in  charity 
to  be  in  any  sense  Divire.  Christendom  has  been  the 
scene  of  the  most  Divine  enthusiasm  of  which  the  soul  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


117 


man  has  ever  had  experience  in  the  whole  course  of  its 
history.  But  Christendom  has  also  been  ablaze  again  and 
again  with  fires ; and  those  fires  are  not  extinct  in  our  own 
day  and  country  of  which  it  may  certainly  be  said  that  the 
Lord  is  not  in  them. 

“And  after  the  fire,  a still  small  voice.*'  In  physical 
impulse,  in  convulsive  terror,  in  the  white  heat  of  emotion, 
dealing  with  sacred  things,  we  may  seek  for  God  in  vain. 
But  when  conscience  speaks  clearly  we  may  be  sure  of  His 
presence.  Conscience  is  His  inward  messenger,  and  in  its 
quiet  whisper  we  listen  to  an  echo  from  the  Infinite  and 
the  Unseen.  We  may,  alas  ! play  tricks  with  it  ; we  may 
drug  it,  we  may  corrupt  it  in  many  ways,  we  may  eventu- 
ally silence  it.  But  if  we  will  let  it  alone,  if  we  will 
reverence  it,  if  we  will  listen  to  it,  it  places  us  surely  in  the 
presence  of  God. 

“After  the  fire,  a still  small  voice.”  Conscience  then 
repeated  the  question,  “ What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ? ” 
and  the  question  implied  beyond  all  doubt  that  Elijah  had 
better  have  been  elsewhere,  and  that  the  state  of  mind 
which  had  brought  him  to  Horeb  was  not  altogether  right 
or  healthy,  Elijah  was  still  in  deep  gloom  ; he  had  yielded 
to  it,  and  now  he  heard  within  him  the  voice  of  reproach  : 
“ What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ? ” 

HI.  Now  let  us  observe  the  character  of  Elijah's  de- 
spondency. Its  motive  beyond  all  question  was  unselfish 
and  noble.  It  is  true  that  he  does  complain,  “ They  seek 
my  life,  to  take  it  away”  ; but  he  is  here  only  thinking  of 
himself  as  the  representative  of  a great  cause,  and  he  is  not 
speaking  in  his  private  or  personal  capacity.  As  a man  he 
would,  if  it  might  be,  gladly  die  : “ Now,  O Lord,  take  away 
my  life  ; for  I am  not  better  than  my  fathers.”  So  he  had 
prayed  in  the  wilderness  of  Beersheba.  But  as  a prophet 
he  desired  to  live — to  live  for  the  sake  of  the  truth  which  he 
had  at  heart.  He  felt  that  the  sword  which  would  strike  him 
was  really  aimed  at  that  which  for  the  moment  he  repre- 
sented. The  forsaken  covenants,  the  ruined  altars,  the 
slaughtered  prophets — these  filled  his  mind  and  heart ; 
these  explained  why  it  was  that  he  was  so  far  from  the 
frontiers  of  Israel,  and  a fugitive  in  the  mountain  sanctuary 
of  Horeb. 

Such  a despondency  as  this  is  surely  a much  better 


ii8 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


thing  than  a jaunty  light-heartedness,  which  is  at  the 
bottom  based  on  a selfish  indifference  to  all  the  greatest 
and  most  precious  things  in  human  life.  It  augurs  ill  for 
a State  when  its  citizens  are  satisfied  with  their  individual 
prosperity,  and  have  no  eye  or  care  for  the  public  weal. 
It  augurs  ill  for  a Church  when  its  members  talk  of  a 
personal  religion,  as  if  there  was  no  thought,  no  care,  no 
prayer,  due  to  the  great  society  of  Christians  united  to  our 
Lord  and  Saviour — to  what  St.  Paul  calls  “the  body  of 
Christ" 

Prophecy  has  a stern  word  for  those  who  are  “not 
grieved  at  the  afflictions  of  Jacob";  and  history  condemns 
unsparingly  the  royal  sybarite  who  calculated  that  the 
world  would  last  his  time,  and  who  then  added,  “ After 
me,  the  deluge."  The  motive  of  Elijah’s  despondency  was 
noble  ; but,  in  itself,  his  despondency  was  wrong.  He 
might  have  remembered  that  what  passes  for  the  moment 
on  earth  is  no  measure  of  what  is  determined  in  heaven  ; 
he  might  have  reflected  that,  while  duties  are  ours,  events 
are  in  the  hands  of  God  ; he  might  have  associated  himself 
with  those  lines,  already  ancient,  of  David,  written,  as  we 
now  know  with  little  less  than  certainty,  when  the  first 
mutterings  of  Absalom’s  rebellion  were  being  heard,  and 
when  the  faint-hearted  men  around  him  counselled  flight 
from  his  difficulties  : “ In  the  Lord  put  I my  trust  : how 
say  ye,  then,  to  my  soul,  that  she  should  flee  as  a bird  unto 
the  hill  ? For,  lo,  the  ungodly  bend  their  bow,  and  make 
ready  arrows  within  the  quiver,  that  they  may  privily  shoot 
at  him  who  is  true  of  heart  ; for  the  foundations  will  be 
cast  down,  and  what  hath  the  righteous  done } The  Lord 
is  in  His  holy  temple,  the  Lord’s  seat  is  in  heaven."  Had 
this  been  in  Elijah’s  mind  he  would  still  have  been  some- 
where near  Jezreel.  As  it  was,  he  had  failed  for  the 
moment,  great  prophet  as  he  was,  to  set  God’s  will  so 
clearly  before  him  as  to  keep  close  to  the  work  that  was 
given  him  to  do.  For  the  moment,  even  Elijah  had  done 
what  we  all  are  tempted  from  time  to  time  to  do.  He  had 
set  aside  the  claim  of  duty  in  favour — mark  this  well — in 
favour  of  the  indulgence  of  sentiment.  And  because  this 
sentiment  was  strictly  religious  sentiment,  gathering  round 
a great  and  an  ancient  sanctuary,  he  had  disguised  from 
himself  that  he  had  erred  and  strayed  so  far  from  the  ways 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


119 


of  God  ; and  therefore  when  the  question  flashed  upon  his 
conscience  it  was  like  the  lightning  on  the  path  of  some 
benighted  wanderer  among  the  precipices,  “ What  doest 
thou  here,  Elijah  ? 

“What  doest  thou  here?’*  Elijah,  we  have  seen,  had 
his  own  account  to  give  of  his  being  where  he  was.  But 
behind  his  excuses,  as  they  died  away  into  space,  behind 
them  was  the  voice  of  duty.  “And  the  Lord  said  unto 
him.  Go,  return  on  thy  way  to  the  wilderness  of  Damascus  : 
and  when  thou  comest,  anoint  Hazael  to  be  king  over 
Syria:  and  Jehu  the  son  of  Nimshi  shalt  thou  anoint  to 
be  king  over  Israel  : and  Elisha  the  son  of  Shaphat  of 
Abel-meholah  shalt  thou  anoint  to  be  prophet  in  thy 
room.” 

IV.  Now  these  directions,  whispered  by  “ the  still  small 
voice”  to  the  conscience  of  Elijah,  involved  two  principles. 
First,  Elijah  was  not  to  dwell  on  the  abstract  aspects  of 
evil ; he  was  to  address  himself  to  the  practical  duties  that 
lay  around  his  path.  Evil  in  its  vast,  massive  accumula- 
tions, evil  in  its  widespread,  its  ancient  empire,  evil  in  the 
strong  and  subtle  ascendency  which  from  time  to  time  it 
acquires  among  men,  is  indeed  beyond  us.  We,  in  our 
separate  weakness,  cannot  banish  it  from  the  world.  We 
lose  precious  time  if  we  try  to  weigh  and  to  measure  it.  Our 
first  wisdom  is  to  pray  to  be  delivered  from  it.  There  it  is, 
a fact,  a vast  and  terrible  fact,  permitted  for  reasons  which 
we  guess  at  rather  than  decipher. 

If  the  children  of  Israel  had  broken  the  covenant,  if  they 
had  destroyed  the  altars,  if  they  had  slain  the  Lord’s  pro- 
phets with  the  sword,  this  was  indeed  a passed  fact,  a 
permitted  fact,  and  so  far  it  was  beyond  the  control  of 
Elijah.  We  only  weaken  ourselves  by  dwelling  upon  mis- 
chiefs which  we  cannot  hope  to  remedy.  We  have  only  a 
certain  amount  of  thought,  of  feeling,  of  resolve,  each  one 
of  us,  to  dispose  of.  And  when  this  has  been  expended 
unavailingly  on  the  abstract,  on  the  untangible,  it  is  ex- 
pended ; it  is  no  longer  ours,  and  we  cannot  employ  it 
when  and  where  we  need  it  close  at  home. 

And,  secondly,  Elijah  was  to  begin  his  work  with  in- 
dividuals ; he  was  to  deal  with  men  one  by  one.  “ Anoint 
Hazael,  the  heathen  monarch,  who,  yet  heathen  though  he 
be,  has  a place  in  the  Divine  government  of  the  world. 


120  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


That  duty  lies  furthest  on  the  frontier  of  thy  work.  Anoint 
Jehu  the  son  of  Nimshi;  he  will  execute  the  impending 
judgments  on  the  apostate  king  of  Israel.  That  piece  of 
work  lies  closer  to  thy  appointed  sphere  of  labour.  Above 
all  provide  for  the  continuance  of  thy  ministry  when  thou 
shalt  have  gone  hence.  Make  Elisha  the  son  of  Shaphat 
prophet  in  thy  room.  That  shall  be  thy  first  stern,  thy 
most  sacred  and  imperative,  duty.’' 

One  of  the  familiar  fallacies  of  an  age  like  ours  is  the 
notion  that  men  can  really  be  improved  in  the  deepest 
sense  of  the  word  if  they  are  dealt  with  in  masses.  General 
legislation,  the  vague  influence  of  the  press,  or  of  oratory, 
social  movements  which  deal  with  men  in  the  block,  which 
ignore  the  care  and  the  needs  of  the  separate  soul  ; these 
are  common  enough.  And  this  fallacy  is  the  result  partly 
of  the  characteristic  opportunities  of  the  modern  world, 
partly  of  the  inertness  which  shrinks  from  the  hard  and 
humble  work  of  dealing  with  single  characters.  These 
general  measures  have,  no  doubt,  their  value,  sometimes 
their  very  great  value,  as  supplementary  influences  ; but 
they  are  almost  worthless  when  they  are  regarded  as  sub- 
stitutes for  that  careful  indispensable  labour  with  single 
souls  which  alone  secures  real  changes  in  hearts  and 
characters. 

A proclamation  in  general  terms  would  have  had  little 
effect  upon  Israel.  The  anointing  of  Jehu,  the  appoint- 
ment of  Elisha,  were,  as  we  know,  to  be  pregnant  with 
consequences. 

What  doest  thou  here  } ” To  every  human  being  in 
his  most  serious  moments  this  question  must  be  suggested  : 
Why  am  I where  I am,  doing  what  I do,  thinking  what  I 
think,  saying  what  I say  ? What  is  the  motive  which 
shapes,  which  guides  my  life,  making  me  do  this  rather 
than  that,  making  me  take  this  turn  in  life  rather  than  the 
other ; choosing  these  friends,  throwing  myself  into  these 
interests,  into  these  trains  of  thought,  into  those  associa- 
tions, into  those  enterprises  ? ” Something,  perhaps  much, 
may  be  determined  by  antecedent  circumstances  ; that  is 
to  say,  by  the  hand  of  God  acting  through  accomplished 
events,  and  so  far  suspending  or  limiting  personal  liberty. 

But  beyond  this  there  is  a margin  in  which  we  all  are 
free.  Even  those  who  cannot  in  the  least  degree  control 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


I2I 


their  personal  movements,  since  they  are,  for  whatever 
reason,  dependent  upon  others,  can  entirely  determine 
where  they  will  be,  what  they  will  be  doing  in  the  sphere 
of  thought  and  of  purpose.  We  are  all  of  us  masters,  if 
we  will,  of  that  inner  world  which  each  man  carries  about 
within  him  ; and  that  world  has  its  Carmel  as  well  as  its 
Horeb  no  less  than  the  outer  world  around  us.  And  the 
serious  question  for  every  man  is  whether,  so  far  as  he  can 
judge,  he  is,  according  to  his  measure  of  strength  and 
opportunity,  endeavouring  to  do  that  portion  of  the  will  of 
God  to  which  the  circumstances  which  surround  him,  to 
which  the  powers  and  opportunities  which  have  been  given 
him,  clearly  point  as  meant  for  him  and  for  no  other  man 
to  do.  What  it  is  exactly  that  engages  each  one  of  us 
matters  little,  comparatively  little,  if  the  motive  to  be 
doing  God's  will  is  actively  recognised. 

It  may  be  the  most  important  duties  in  Church  or  State  ; 
it  may  be  the  daily  toil  of  the  shopboy  or  the  domestic 
servant,  all  is  equally  ennobled  if  the  great  motive  be 
there ; all  is  equally  degraded  if  the  great  motive  be 
absent.  ‘‘  What  would  you  do,"  a very  good  man  was  once 
asked  who  was  playing  draughts  with  his  little  son,  ‘‘if 
you  knew  that  you  would  die  in  five  minutes  } " “ I 

should  finish  this  game  of  draughts,"  was  the  reply.  Work 
and  recreation  are  equally  legitimate  if  each  is  treated  as 
part  of  the  will  of  God,  if  throughout  life  the  awful  signifi- 
cance of  life  as  the  great  gift  for  which  we  must  surely 
account  to  our  Maker,  which  has  been  purchased  back 
from  ruin  by  the  Incarnation  and  the  death  of  our  Divine 
Redeemer,  be  steadily  kept  in  view.  There  may  be  very 
good  reasons  for  spending  portions  of  it  on  Horeb  as 
well  as  upon  Carmel.  But  the  essential  point  is  that  we 
should  be  where  we  are,  that  we  should  be  doing  what  we 
do,  because,  so  far  as  we  know.  He  who  has  given  us  the 
gift  of  life  wills  this,  wills  nothing  else  respecting  us. 

H.  P.  L. 


XVI.  Elijah's  Flight,  i Kings  xix. 

This  event  in  the  life  of  Elijah  is  one  that  took  place  a 
great  while  ago;  and  the  circumstances  in  which  it  hap- 
pened may  seem  very  unlike  our  own  ; and  Elijah  himself. 


122 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


to  whom  it  happened,  was  so  different  from  ourselves,  and 
so  far  above  us  that,  all  things  considered,  little  instruction 
may  be  expected  to  be  derivable  from  this  or  any  other 
part  of  his  history.  The  only  feeling  he  is  fitted  to  excite 
may  seem  to  be  wonder.  When  we  come  upon  him  in  the 
pages  of  the  Bible  it  is  like  coming  upon  a skeleton  of 
superhuman  size,  or  upon  a gigantic  suit  of  armour — we 
can  only  express  astonishment  at  the  greatness  and  the 
strength  of  men  of  former  times.  Well,  if  this  were  the 
only  feeling  which  this  history  raised,  it  might  not  be  amiss 
to  entertain  it  for  a time  in  our  minds.  The  feeling  of 
wonder  at  the  greatness  of  others  is  a very  wholesome 
feeling,  and  is  closely  connected  with  another,  equally 
salutary, — the  feeling  of  sadness  at  our  own  littleness.  Yet 
the  greatness  of  this  prophet  need  not  be  any  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  our  deriving  benefit  from  his  history.  * Rather, 
it  should  be  helpful  to  us.  For,  just  as  if  we  were  examin- 
ing the  joints  and  mechanisms  and  the  adaptations  of  the 
human  body,  the  body  of  a giant  would  present  them  to  us 
in  their  fullest  and  most  visible  form,  so  in  a very  great 
mind  we  shall  be  able  to  see  most  clearly  the  movements 
of  mind,  its  strength  and  joy,  as  well  as  its  weakness  and 
despondency. 

The  only  part  of  the  prophet’s  history  which  can  be 
touched  upon  is  his  flight  to  Sinai,  and  only  a few  of 
the  more  obvious  points  in  that  which  have  a practical 
bearing. 

I.  We  may  notice  the  circumstances  of  the  time  in  which 
Elijah  was  placed.  These  circumstances  were  full  of  in- 
terest. So  far  as  things  then  could  resemble  things  now, 
the  state  of  parties  at  that  time  was  not  unlike  the  state 
of  parties  at  present.  There  had  always  been  in  Israel  an 
idolatrous,  disbelieving  party.  The  history  throughout  its 
whole  length  shows  a polluted  stream  of  idolatrous 
worship  running  side  by  side  with  the  true  worship  of 
Jehovah;  and  sometimes  this  idolatrous  current  became 
so  broad  that  it  gave  its  own  colour  to  the  whole  stream 
of  the  people’s  religious  life.  They  were  idolaters  in  Ur 
of  the  Chaldees — “Your  fathers  dwelt  on  the  other  side  of 
the  flood  in  old  times,  even  Terah,  the  father  of  Abra- 
ham : and  they  served  other  gods.” 

They  were  idolaters  in  Egypt.  In  the  wilderness  their 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


123 


idolatry  broke  out  when  ‘‘  they  joined  themselves  unto 
Baal-Peor,  and  ate  the  sacrifices  of  the  dead.”  They  were 
idolaters  in  Canaan.  Even  David’s  wife,  the  daughter  of 
Saul,  possessed  idols,  with  one  of  which  she  deceived  the 
hired  assassins  of  her  father,  and  saved  her  husband’s  life. 
The  idolatrous  elements  were  numerous,  and  pervaded 
every  class  in  the  nation,  and  only  awaited  some  hand 
skilful  and  strong  enough  to  combine  them,  in  order  to 
acquire  the  command  of  the  people’s  thoughts,  and  assume 
the  place  of  the  established  faith.  This  was  found  in 
Jezebel,  daughter  of  the  king  of  Sidon,  and  her  feeble 
^husband  Ahab.  The  latter  appears  to  have  been  not  so 
much  vicious  as  weak — one  who,  like  a spoilt  child  when 
refused  his  wishes,  fell  sick  and  would  not  eat.  And  thus 
he  fell  completely  under  the  guidance  of  his  unscrupulous 
wife.  At  her  instigation  he  introduced  the  worship  of 
Baal — “ He  reared  up  an  altar  for  Baal  in  the  house  of 
Baal  which  he  had  built  in  Samaria.  And  Ahab  made 
a grove  ; and  Ahab  did  more  to  provoke  Jehovah  the  God 
of  Israel  to  anger  than  all  the  kings  of  Israel  that  were 
before  him.”  He  made  Baal-worship  a State  religion.  But 
he  went  further.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  toleration  for 
himself,  he  sought  to  suppress  all  other  worship.  He  issued 
orders  for  the  murder  of  Jehovah’s  prophets,  and  the  throw- 
ing down  of  His  altars.  And  with  a fatal  fickleness  and 
subserviency,  the  people  gave  in  to  the  despotic  will  of 
the  effeminate  tyrant.  Elijah  pleaded  this  condition  of 
things  before  the  Lord  in  the  wilderness — ‘‘  The  children 
of  Israel  have  forsaken  Thy  covenant,  and  thrown  down 
Thine  altars,  and  slain  Thy  prophets  ; and  I only  am  left, 
and  they  seek  my  life.”  The  country  was  passing  through 
a religious  crisis,  and  there  could  be  seen  that  sifting  of 
men  which  goes  on  at  such  a time. 

There  were,  as  on  all  such  occasions,  three  parties — the 
true  worshippers  of  Jehovah,  the  strict  idolaters,  and  the 
middlemen,  who  were  neither.  These  last  were,  no  doubt, 
the  most  numerous.  Perhaps  the  body  of  the  people  be- 
longed to  this  class — men,  as  Elijah  described. them,  who 
halted  or  limped  between  two  opinions  ; men  not  firm  on 
their  legs,  but  limping,  being  neither  worshippers  of  J ehovah, 
nor  good  idolaters.  Some  belonged  to  this  class  because 
they  thought  it  safest  to  side  with  the  majority.  Some 


124 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


because  they  could  not  go  all  the  way  with  the  extreme 
Jehovah-party  ; yet  they  resented  the  king  s high-handed 
proceeding,  thinking  it  a dangerous  infringement  of  liberty. 
Some  because  the  problem  presented  to  them  was  too 
difficult  for  their  solution,  and  they  were  unable  to  decide, 
being  drawn  sometimes  to  one  side  and  sometimes  to 
another. 

And  some  belonged  to  this  great  middle  party  on  prin- 
ciple, because  it  was  a middle  party.  They  disliked 
extremes.  In  every  matter  there  was  a great  deal  not 
essential,  and  men  ruined  their  own  cause  by  their  offensive 
stickling  for  this.  The  worship  of  Jehovah  was  no  doubt 
essentially  the  true  religion,  and  its  supporters  might  be 
excellent  men  ; but  they  were  certainly  narrow.  If  they 
insisted  less  on  names,  and  forms,  and  definitions,  it  would 
be  well.  If  they  were  more  tolerant,  and  accepted  the  good 
that  was  in  all  men — might  it  not  even  be  said,  in  all  things 
— and  the  deep,  religious  feeling  that  was  in  their  hearts, 
even  if  the  form  in  which  it  showed  itself  externally  was 
not  always  to  their  liking,  they  would  make  much  greater 
way  and  find  their  usefulness  much  enlarged.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  the  old  forms  of  Jehovah- worship,  which 
suited  a rude  people  in  the  wilderness,  might  not  be 
adapted  to  the  feelings  of  an  accomplished  and  edu- 
cated nation  that  had  enjoyed  permanent  empire  for  600 
years. 

Religious  teaching  must  be  accommodated  somewhat 
to  the  wants  and  relations  of  the  age,  and  it  was  news  to 
them  to  hear  that  all  that  was  to  be  attained  of  truth  and 
goodness  amongst  men  had  already  been  found,  and  was 
to  be  had  embalmed  in  the  practices  of  their  own  particular 
religion.  It  seemed  certainly  possible  that  some  other 
portion  of  mankind,  even  Zidon,  had  found  something  good 
which  they  had  missed,  and  this  fanatical  closing  up  of 
every  inlet  against  the  thought  and  the  belief  of  every 
portion  of  the  race  besides  themselves  was  surely  a mis- 
take. 

Such  was,  perhaps,  like  the  state  of  parties,  and  the  feel- 
ings that  existed  at  this  time.  It  was  a time  of  confusion 
and  breaking  up  of  old  beliefs.  Cross  currents  were  run- 
ning, and  eddies,  that  caught  men  and  whirled  them  about. 
The  waves  were  so  broken  that  the  real  direction  of  the  cur- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


125 


rent  was  not  seen.  Perhaps  few  discerned  what  was  really 
at  stake.  One  mind  at  least  took  in  the  whole  meaning  of 
the  issue.  He  was  not  blinded  by  that  w'ay  that  men  have 
of  speaking  of  religion, — saying  it  is  an  inward  thing,  a kind 
of  feeling,  and  if  the  feelings  be  right  it  matters  little  what 
the  external  object  is  that  excites  them.  To  him  the  ex- 
ternal object  was  everything  : “ Choose  ye  this  day  whom 
ye  will  serve  ; if  Jehovah  be  God,  follow  Him  ; but  if  Baal, 
then  follow  him.''  He  knew  that  according  to  the  external 
object,  so  very  soon  will  be  the  feelings  and  the  life  of  the 
worshipper.  Elijah,  whether  of  set  purpose  or  under  a 
sudden  impulse,  permitted  himself  on  Carmel  to  use  force. 
He  met  the  king's  violence  with  equal  violence  of  his  own. 
Perhaps  no  other  course  was  left  him  ; but  more  likely  it 
was  a mistake.  But  the  temptation  was  very  great — in  the 
full  tide  of  excitement  and  with  the  multitude  at  his  back. 
But  he  should  have  remembered  that  the  multitude  would 
be  at  any  one’s  back  who  would  show  them  force,  particu- 
larly of  a rude  kind,  and  though  at  his  back  to-day  they 
might  be  at  Jezebel's  to-morrow.  And  so  they  were.  And 
the  crowd  that  under  the  influence  of  his  great  miracle 
confessed  their  faith  on  Carmel  with  such  fervour,  crying, 
“Jehovah,  He  is  God;  Jehovah,  He  is  God,”  bowed  sub- 
missive to  Jezebel’s  threat  to  take  the  prophet's  life  in 
Samaria : So  let  the  gods  do  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  I 

make  not  thy  life  as  the  life  of  one  of  them  by  to-morrow 
about  this  time.”  And  Elijah  arose  and  went  for  his  life. 

II.  Observe  now  the  circumstances  of  his  flight  and  his 
despondency.  Elijah  fled.  That  was  necessary.  He  fled 
into  the  wilderness  ; not  to  Zidon  as  he  had  done  before, 
not  to  any  of  the  neighbouring  peoples,  nor  beyond  the 
Jordan,  but  to  the  wilderness.  That  is  where  you  expect 
him  to  flee.  In  any  moment  of  his  life  the  waste  was  con- 
genial to  him.  Its  bleakness  and  isolation  were  but  the 
counterparts  of  his  own  mind.  His  favourite  abode  was 
among  the  mountains,  by  the  brook  Cherith,  with  only  the 
monotonous  rush  of  waters  in  his  ear  among  the  silent  hills. 
He  preferred  the  ravens  for  company  to  men.  He  seemed 
alone  among  men.  His  greatness  made  him  solitary. 
There  are  some  men  solitary  for  other  reasons,  just  as  there 
are  some  mountains.  Some  hills  in  our  neighbourhood 
stand  alone  though  they  are  not  great.  The  forces  of 


126 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


nature  and  time  have  carried  away  what  surrounded  and 
touched  them,  and  left  them  solitary.  And  circumstances 
sometimes  alienate  or  remove  men’s  associates  from  them, 
and  they  stand  apart,  not  possessing,  whether  they  seek 
the  confidence  of  others  or  no.  But  some  mountains  stand 
alone  because  of  their  grandeur.  Giant  hills  crowd  about 
the  foot  of  Mount  Blanc,  yet  in  their  midst  he  is  alone.  They 
cannot  reach  the  same  altitude  as  he,  and  go  with  him  but 
a little  way.  Into  those  regions  of  cloud  and  sky  into  which 
he  towers  they  cannot  rise.  And  thus  it  is  with  the  highest 
minds.  In  common  things  others  can  accompany  them. 
They  can  be  followed  to  a certain  height,  but  there  other 
men  and  they  part  company.  In  those  lofty  regions  where 
only  heaven  is  about — in  dense  clouds  or  Divine  light — they 
stand  solitary,  and  being  alone,  even  in  the  midst  of  men, 
they  naturally  seek  solitude. 

But  Elijah  fled  to  the  wilderness  of  Sinai.  That  also 
was  characteristic.  Sinai  is  the  wilderness  of  wildernesses. 
On  the  back  of  natural  terrors  moral  terrors  are  accu- 
mulated. There  Jehovah,  before  whom  Elijah  stood, 
showed  himself  most  clearly.  That  side  of  God  which 
Elijah  had  most  sympathy  with  was  most  fully  mani- 
fested there.  He  was  the  prophet  of  law,  of  force,  of 
terror  ; and  he  longed  to  realize  the  Lord  more  fully.  He 
would  penetrate  into  the  very  place  of  terrors.  He  would 
see  the  mountain  where  the  Law  was  given,  its  rugged 
front,  once  veiled  in  awful  smoke ; its  long  fissures,  which 
might  have  been  ploughed  by  the  very  lightnings  of  that 
dreadful  day — might  it  not  be  that  Jehovah  Himself  might, 
as  to  Moses,  appear  to  him  } 

My  brethren,  does  not  this  flight  of  Elijah  to  Sinai  ex- 
hibit a figure  of  ourselves  } May  we  not  say  of  it  : “ which 
thing  is  an  allegory  } ” Do  we  never  flee  there,  too?  In 
our  conflicts  with  laxness,  and  the  licentious  Baal-worship 
of  our  day,  when  the  battle  is  going  against  us,  do  we  not 
invoke  the  God  of  Sinai  against  our  adversaries  ? At  all 
events  do  we  not  find  refuge  in.  Sinai  ourselves  } I think 
men  flee  there  often  still — when  they  are  wearied  with  the 
indifference  and  vexed  with  the  laxness  of  those  about 
them.  There  is  an  asperity  in  their  frame  of  mind,  a fierce 
earnestness,  a longing,  stimulated  perhaps  by  opposition, 
for  a sight  of  truth  as  it  is  ; and  that  easy-going  acceptance 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


127 


of  it  which  satisfies  most  men  will  not  be  put  up  with  by 
them.  And  it  is  the  severer  forms  of  truth  that  we  desire 
— law,  right,  justice,  a word  of  God  pure  and  simple — and 
our  toleration  for  men  whose  thinking  tends  to  milder 
truth  ; to  rub  away  the  edges  of  sharp  doctrines  ; to  run 
every  doctrine  away  into  a region  over  which  falls  a mist 
of  uncertainty,  saying  this  is  mystery,  this  ends  in  God,  we 
do  not  know,  we  can  only  guess — our  toleration  for  minds 
of  this  class  is  very  little.  Their  hesitation  or  reserve 
seems  to  us  but  inconsequence  or  sluggishness,  and  our 
mind  with  its  keen  dogmatic  edge  will  have  no  compro- 
mise, our  cry  is  Sinai — law. 

On  his  way  towards  Sinai,  somewhere  about  the  wilder- 
ness of  Beersheba,  in  the  south  of  Palestine,  there  fell  upon 
Elijah  that  singular  weariness  of  life  and  despair  which  we 
wonder  so  much  at  in  him — which  we  wonder  at,  but  gladly* 
accept, — for  it  is  the  touch  of  nature  that  makes  us  and  him 
kin.  He  came  and  sat  down  under  a juniper-tree  and 
requested  for  himself  that  he  might  die.  “ It  is  enough  ; 
now,  O Lord,  take  away  my  life!’'  Some  part  of  this 
despondency  might  be  due  to  physical  weakness,  for  he  fled 
for  his  life.  But  it  was  almost  altogether  spiritual.  This 
was  the  morrow  of  the  day  of  his  transcendant  success  on 
Carmel.  The  tide  of  spiritual  power  had  never  risen  so 
high  even  in  his  soul  as  it  had  done  on  Carmel.  God  had 
never  obeyed  him  so  implicitly  as  then,  and  in  the  presence 
both  of  royalty  and  the  masses  of  the  nation.  Never  before 
had  he  felt  so  confident  and  wielded  with  such  absolute 
mastery  his  sway  over  men’s  minds.  Never  perhaps  before 
had  such  thoughts  risen  in  his  mind  as  rose  then  of  a king- 
dom conquered  for  Jehovah,  and  a nation  born  in  an  hour, 
and  a realm  cleansed  from  all  impurities,  and  every  knee 
bowed  to  the  Lord. 

Victory  for  God  was  secure,  and  he  was  the  conqueror. 
That  was  yesterday.  And  to-day  spiritual  reaction  has  set 
in  in  his  own  soul,  and  he  is  a fugitive,  crouching  under  a 
bush  in  the  wilderness,  the  facile  crowd  returned  to  its  im- 
pure rites  again,  not  one  voice  that  dares  to  raise  itself  on 
the  Lord’s  side — the  kingdom  which  seemed  the  Lord’s 
not  thrown  back  as  it  seemed,  but  hopelessly  Baal’s — all 
his  efforts  lost.  It  is  no  wonder  that  complete  prostration 
overtook  him,  and  that  he  requested  for  himself  that  he 


128 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


might  die.  It  is  a hard  moment  in  a man’s  life  that,  such 
as  had  now  come  upon  Elijah  ; when  a man  has  given  the 
energy  of  his  life  to  one  cherished  purpose,  and  has  hoped 
for  it,  patiently  waiting  till  the  years  should  roll  past, 
when  the  promised  prize  should  fall  to  him ; enduring 
many  hardships,  cheered  by  the  prospects  ever  coming 
nearer  of  success,  and  refusing  to  let  himself  think  of  defeat, 
his  mind  always  saying  to  itself  that  it  could  not  be  but 
that  he  would  succeed.  It  is  a hard  moment  when  at  last, 
through  some  perversity  of  will  of  one  in  whom  he  trusted, 
or  some  unworthiness  of  others,  or  some  great  error  in 
calculation,  defeat  ensues  when  victory  was  judged  secure, 
and  when  the  once  compact  purpose  of  his  life  is  broken 
into  pieces  like  the  fragments  of  a vanquished  host  which 
no  commander  can  ever  rally  or  re-unite.  At  such  a 
•time  only  this  remains  to  him,  that  he  judged  it  truth  for 
which  he  struggled,  and  that  the  means  he  used  seemed 
to  him  the  best,  or  at  least  worthy ; and  this,  that  at  any 
rate  God  remains  to  him,  to  whom  he  can  appeal  to  judge 
his  cause,  and,  if  he  have  fought  in  vain,  to  release  him  from 
the  unavailing  strife. 

III.  The  last  thing  to  notice  is  God’s  treatment  of  His 
desponding  servant. 

First,  he  gave  him  bodily  food,  for  that  was  needful,  and 
as  we  pray  daily,  “ Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,”  and 
as  He  hears  us  ordinarily  so  to  hear  us  is  not  beneath  His 
greatness  when  we  pray  in  circumstances  extraordinary. 
Then  in  the  strength  given  him  He  brought  him  to  the 
Mount  of  God.  He  gratified  his  longings.  He  satisfied  his 
spiritual  aspirations.  That  which  he  so  greatly  desired  to 
see  He  showed  to  him.  He  took  him  up  to  the  very  height, 
and  down  to  the  very  deeps  of  that  kind  of  realizing  of 
Himself  which  he  longed  to  attain  to.  God  as  he  conceived 
Him,  and  as  his  heart  delighted  in.  He  showed  him  in  per- 
fection. Nay,  for  his  sake  He  almost  re-enacted  the  terrors 
of  Sinai.  ‘‘  A great  and  strong  wind  rent  the  mountains, 
and  brake  in  pieces  the  rocks  before  the  Lord  ; but  the 
Lord  was  not  in  the  wind  : and  after  the  wind  an  earth- 
quake ; but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  earthquake  : and 
after  the  earthquake  a fire  ; but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the 
fire.”  Sinai  over  again,  and  the  Lord  not  in  it  at  all.  Was 
it  for  this  that  he  had  come  so  far — was  this  the  fulfilling 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


T29 


of  the  dream  of  his  life,  and  the  reward  of  his  unexampled 
might  and  toil  ? And  after  the  fire  a still  small  voice. 
And  it  was  so,  when  Elijah  heard  it,  that  he  wrapped  his 
face  in  his  mantle.”  This  is  the  Divine  method  of  teaching, 
the  full  meaning  may  be  beyond  us,  but  it  pointed  back  to 
Elijah’s  past  career,  and  it  pointed  onward  to  one  who 
should  use  no  force,  who  should  not  cry,  nor  lift  up,  nor  let 
his  voice  be  heard  in  the  streets. 

Elijah’s  methods  were  tried  on  himself — power,  force, 
law,  Sinai — and  the  efforts  were  naught.  The  Lord  was 
not  in  the  earthquake  or  the  fire.  Did  the  prophet  never 
wonder  at  the  obdurate  king,  at  the  besotted  people,  at 
the  fickle  crowd,  at  the  mad  vindictive  queen  ? What 
had  he  been  plying  them  with  all  his  days  ? Miracle  on 
miracle,  a gloomy  demeanour,  heavens  of  brass ; famine, 
thirst,  death,  law,  force.  Did  he  wonder  now  after  his 
present  experience,  or  was  his  wonder  now  not  turned  in 
upon  himself?  He  had  been  enabled  to  sound  the  depths 
of  that  conception  of  God,  which  had  all  his  life  fascinated 
him — he  had  come  to  his  place  and  he  had  found  that  God 
was  something  different  from  his  idea  of  Him,  and  that 
His  power  was  not  of  the  kind  that  he  imagined.  Yet 
there  must  have  been  a parable  to  Elijah  in  the  earthquake 
and  fire  which  was  powerless,  followed  by  the  small  voice,” 
in  which  was  God  Himself — a parable  of  Sinai  and  Calvary, 
And  might  there  not  rise  up  before  him,  some  such  scene 
as  he  was  yet  to  witness  in  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
and  to  share  in  when  the  thunders  of  Sinai  should  die  down 
and  become  lower  and  lower  through  successive  ages,  till 
at  last  they  were  succeeded  by  the  “ still  small  voice  ” of 
one  who  “ did  not  cry,  nor  lift  up,  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be 
heard  in  the  streets,”  but  who  was  God  with  us  unto  them 
which  are  called,  both  Jews  and  Gentile,  Christ  the  power 
of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  ; ” “ for  what  the  law  could 
not  do” — even  though  wielded  by  an  Elijah — God  send- 
ing His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  for  sin, 
condemned  sin  in  the  flesh  : that  the  righteousness  of  the 
law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh, 
but  after  the  Spirit.” 

This  history  suggests  two  lessons.  One  speaks  to  those 
of  us  who,  like  Elijah,  are  set  over  men  in  the  Lord,  and 
the  other  to  the  people. 

K 


130 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


(1)  We  may  see  how,  though  God  deals  most  merci- 
fully with  His  desponding  servants,  He  yet  gives  them  to 
understand  that  despondency  is  out  of  place  somewhat — 
is  not  a state  for  men  who  have  work  to  do.  He  dealt 
most  mercifully  with  Elijah.  He  gave  him  bread  to  eat. 
He  brought  him  to  the  place  of  His  own  awful  manifesta- 
tion. He  allowed  him  to  revel  in  those  conceptions  of 
Himself  dearest  to  his  soul,  to  sound  them  to  their  deeps. 
He  instructed  him,  not  by  plain  words,  but  by  indirect 
displays  from  which  he  could  not  but  gather  where  his 
mistake  had  lain.  All  this  was  the  treatment  of  a wise 
and  merciful  Father.  But  in  the  midst  of  it  all  He  kept 
saying  to  him,  What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ? The  scene 
of  labour  was  elsewhere,  and  he  was  here.  And  as  soon  as 
it  was  possible  to  send  him  back  to  it  the  Lord  said  unto 
him,  **  Go,  return  ; and  when  thou  comest,  anoint  Hazael  to 
be  king  over  Syria  : and  Jehu  the  son  of  Nimshi  shalt 
thou  anoint  to  be  king  over  Israel  ; and  Elisha  the  son  of 
Shaphat  shalt  thou  anoint  to  be  prophet  in  thy  room.'’ 
Arise  and  return  to  the  world  and  life.  His  work  was  not 
done.  In  spite  of  weariness  of  the  world  he  must  face  it, 
he  must  handle  its  forces  as  he  finds  them,  and  do  his  best 
to  direct  them.  He  must  not  recoil  from  meeting  open 
foes  like  Hazael,  superficial  reformers  like  Jehu  ; there  they 
are,  and  the  servant  of  God  must  use  them  for  the  best. 
He  must  mix  with  them,  study  them,  comprehend  them, 
declare  God’s  will  to  them,  and  use  them  for  the  Church’s 
advancement.  Action,  not  despondency,  is  demanded. 

(2)  For  there  is  no  reason  to  despair.  We  are  often  cast 
down  with  our  small  success,  and  ready  to  throw  away  the 
weapons  of  our  warfare  and  acknowledge  defeat.  But 
Elijah’s  history  shows  that  success  is  often  much  better 
than  appearances  would  suggest. 

“ The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation.” 
No  influences  can  be  quite  lost,  only  their  result  is  not  im- 
mediate— As  the  rain  cometh  down  and  the  snow  from 
heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither  again,  but  watereth  the 
earth  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud,  so  shall  My  word 
be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  My  mouth.”  Perhaps  all  good 
servants  do  more  work  than  they  imagine.  P^lijah  thought 
he  had  saved  his  own  soul.  God  showed  him  7,000  men 
who  had  not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal ; and  as  God’s 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


131 


servants  do  more  than  they  think  they  are  doing,  so  they 
will  find  God  putting  upon  them  at  the  last  an  unex- 
pected honour — an  exceeding  weight  of  glory.  This  tem- 
porary darkness  in  Elijah's  life  was  swallowed  up  in  the 
light  of  the  end,  and  the  honour  God  put  upon  him  in 
the  latter  days  was  unspeakable,  when  he  stood  beside  the 
Son  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration.  So  that  it  seems 
that  wherein  men  fail  is  forgotten  by  God,  and  wherein 
they  succeed  is  the  measure  of  the  glory  that  is  bestowed 
on  them. 

But  the  influence  of  a true  man  of  God  is  profound 
Elijah  thought  his  influence  fleeting  and  superficial,  but 
it  was  deep  and  pervading.  Two  brief  reigns  passed  over, 
one  of  two  years  and  the  other  of  twelve,  when  the  harvest 
began  to  be  reaped.  The  nation  was  full  of  the  spirit  of 
smiting  against  the  bloody  and  idolatrous  house  of  Ahab. 
And  when  the  prophet  went  to  anoint  Jehu  the  son  of 
Nimshi,  so  ripe  was  the  time  for  a change  that  the  army 
immediately  hailed  the  new  monarch,  crying,  “God  save 
King  Jehu."  And  the  carnage  which  followed  in  Ahab's 
house  was  terrible  and  complete,  and  the  religious  as  well 
as  political  revolution  which  followed  was  thorough. 

It  was  Elijah's  spirit  working  in  men — in  the  army, 
among  the  citizens,  in  the  prophets  that  came  after  him,  in 
the  Rechabites — the  severe,  pure,  monotheistic  spirit,  the 
spirit  of  truth,  the  spirit  which  is  omnipotent  when  it  rises 
in  the  hearts  of  a people.  Surely  here  is  hope  and  en- 
couragement for  any  one  that  is  set  over  men  to  be  their 
spiritual  guide  and  to  lead  them  into  the  way  of  God  and 
of  His  Christ.  Be  assured,  that  any  defeat  we  suffer  is 
only  apparent  : victory  at  the  last  is  certain.  Tears  may 
accompany  your  sowing.  It  is  a hard  soil,  this  human 
mind  which  you  have  to  break  up  and  deposit  the  precious 
seed  in.  Yet  it  is  a deep  and  fertile  soil  after  all.  What 
harvests  have  been  already  reaped  from  it,  of  godliness 
and  self-devotion,  and  of  all  those  glorious  ideal  creations 
of  the  mind. 

And  you  know  how  the  growth  of  this  good  seed  in  it 
tends  to  make  it  deeper,  and  to  cleanse  it  of  its  weeds,  and 
what  a rich  harvest  it  may  be  made  to  yield  at  the  last. 
Think  of  the  reverence,  and  affection,  and  enthusiasm  for 
knowledge  and  truth,  and  for  a pure  and  broad  human  life, 


132 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


you  may  call  out  in  the  young — of  the  steady  attachment 
to  sound  principle  which  you  may  create  or  confirm  in 
those  that  are  grown  up — of  the  patience  and  resignation 
in  sorrow  and  affliction  which  you  may  teach  to  those  that 
have  to  suffer,  and  how  you  may  bring  the  light  of  religion 
into  the  lonely  cottage  or  the  humble  dwelling  of  the  poor, 
which  will  brighten  up  every  face  and  gild  the  straitened 
ways  of  life  as  a ray  of  sunshine  will  pass  through  the 
narrow  windows  and  lighten  up  the  furniture  within.  Ah, 
it  is  not  in  Parliament  or  on  the  battle-field  that  deeds  are 
done  that  are  great  in  God  s sight : it  is  rather  on  that 
stage  which  to  men’s  eyes  seems  narrow,  but  is  the  widest 
of  all,  where  individual  human  souls  are  engaged  in  playing 
out  the  great  drama  of  their  own  immortal  destiny,  reject- 
ing or  accepting,  amidst  the  manifold  struggles  of  mind, 
the  truth  which  God  by  you  is  presenting  to  them.  Think 
of  the  influence  in  a crisis  of  soul  like  this,  and  how  a word 
or  a look  or  a gesture  may  exert  an  influence  even  to 
eternity ! Think  of  this,  I say,  and  bring  to  bear  upon 
your  task  every  resource  of  your  own  mind,  of  circumstance, 
and  of  the  word  of  God,  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power 
of  His  might. 

But  there  fs  another  lesson  which  this  history  teaches. 
The  lesson  is  this  : the  necessity  of  standing  by  those 
set  over  you.  Elijah’s  despair  was  due  largely  to  his 
loneliness,  to  his  having  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  Lord 
single-handed.  And  Elijah  was  a giant  such  as  men  are 
not  now,  and  yet  the  forces  of  the  enemy  were  too  strong 
for  him.  He  had  not  the  support  of  the  people.  There 
were  many  that  agreed  with  him  so  far,  a number  who 
agreed  with  him  out  and  out  ; there  were  many  meek, 
mute  souls  throughout  the  land  who  wished  him  well  ; 
but  they  wanted  courage.  Their  feelings  and  their  sym- 
pathies were  right  but  they  were  not  the  men  that  soldiers 
in  God’s  army  are  made  of,  and  of  the  most  it  had  to 
be  said  that  they  wanted  one  essential  thing — they  were 
not  firm  in  their  principles.  They  halted  between  two 
opinions. 

Hence  their  sympathy  and  enthusiasm  rose  to  fever 
height  one  day  and  was  cold  as  the  dead  the  next.  The 
lesson  goes  deep.  To-day  you  may  be  enthusiastic,  your 
sympathies  are  aglow,  the  tide  of  feeling  rises  high  in  your 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


133 


heart,  and  there  is  no  bound  to  the  extent  to  which  you 
wish  well  to  the  cause  which  your  spiritual  leader  repre- 
sents. And  you  may  feel  that  it  is  a great  cause,  as  great 
because  really  the  same  as  that  which  Elijah  represented  ; 
the  cause  of  the  one  true  living  God  against  all  denials  of 
Him  or  all  substitutes  for  Him — the  cause  of  a pure  morality 
in  the  land  inseparably  connected  with  a pure  worship — the 
cause  of  the  independence  of  religion  of  the  control  and 
manipulation  for  State  purposes  by  civil  rulers,  whether  they 
be  fools  like  Ahab,  or  harlots  like  Jezebel,  or  whatever  they 
may  be — the  cause  of  the  existence  of  true  religion  in  every 
heart  and  home  in  the  country.  It  is  the  same  cause  now 
as  then  ; all  this  you  may  feel  now,  and  you  may  believe 
that  the  feeling  will  remain. 

So  did  the  crowd  on  Carmel  on  the  day  of  the  gladness 
of  Elijah’s  heart.  But  on  the  morrow  they  feared  to  lift  a 
finger  for  him.  My  brethren,  if  those  set  over  us  are  to  be 
successful  we  must  stand  by  them  ; and  if  so  we  must  be 
at  one  with  them  in  principle.  I do  not  say  in  every  opinion 
which  we  may  hold  or  express,  but  in  the  great  principles 
which  move  their  own  lives,  and  for  which  among  you  they 
have  to  contend.  You  must  share  with  them  in  their  love 
of  the  Lord  that  bought  you.  You  must  hold  with  them, 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father 
of  all,  who  is  over  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  you  all. 
Everything  you  do  must  have  its  root  there;  and  then  your 
sympathy  with  them  in  all  their  contendings  for  this  will 
be  keen  and  intelligent — without  it  your  sympathy  with 
them  in  their  work  will  be  languid  and  evanescent  and  go 
no  deeper  than  a certain  esprit  de  corps  peculiar  to  a sec- 
tional Christianity, 

It  will  arise  merely  out  of  opposition  to  others  from 
enmity  to  the  opposite  camp,  and  having  no  root  in  itself, 
when  a real  conflict  comes  will  wither  away.  Spiritual 
teachers  in  all  ages,  perhaps,  have  fallen  into  the  error  of 
Elijah.  They  have  exaggerated,  they  have  gone  into  ex- 
tremes into  which  those  whom  they  taught  could  not  follow 
them.  It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  them  into  their  extremes  ; 
but  these  extremes  are  greatly  due  to  their  feeling  of  being 
isolated,  and  of  the  immovable  insensibility  of  those  whom 
they  have  to  instruct.  Cordial  co-operation,  cordial  sym- 
pathy from  you  in  the  great  general  truths  of  the  faith 


134 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


will  remove  these  feelings  and  these  exaggerations,  and 
then  Christian  teaching  shall  become  calm  and  simple  and 
natural,  and  the  stream  of  Christian  truth  and  life,  instead 
of  being  like  a noisy  brook,  dashing  itself  against  everything 
within  its  reach,  will  advance  like  a great  placid  broad 
river  without  a wave  upon  its  surface,  absorbing  into  itself 
on  all  sides  every  contribution  of  the  thought  and  life  of 
men,  and  moving  on  with  a power  that  nothing  can  resist, 
and  bearing  on  its  bosom  to  a blessed  end  this  human 
family  which  Christ  loved  and  gave  Himself  for. 

A.  B.  D. 


XVII.  The  King  Conquered.  2 Kings  vi. 

This  chapter  is  about  one  of  the  battles  of  the  king  of 
Syria  against  Israel.  You  remember  about  Naaman. 
Naaman  was  captain  of  the  host  of  the  king  of  Syria,  yet 
he  does  not  appear,  at  least  by  name,  to  take  any  part  in 
this  war.  He  may  have  been  here,  he  may  have  been  in 
the  background,  but  I rather  infer  that,  since  he  went  back 
to  Syria,  not  only  with  a new  skin,  but  a new  God,  pro- 
bably he  fell  into  disfavour,  or  was  in  some  way  held  to  be 
disqualified  for  his  former  supreme  military  position.  A 
very  wonderful  thing  that.  Naaman  came  to  be  healed  of 
his  leprosy,  and  he  got  more  than  he  wanted.  That  is  the 
perpetual  history  of  all  earnest  men  who  come  to  the  right 
quarter  for  help.  No  man  can  come  to  church,  to  the 
living  God,  with  a right  desire,  without  getting  exceeding 
abundantly  above  that  which  he  came  for  ; no  matter  what 
he  came  for,  if  it  was  of  the  right  quality,  of  the  right 
nature,  and  within  the  compass  of  the  gifts  of  God  to  men, 
within  the  limits  and  boundaries  of  time,  then  he  got  ex- 
ceeding abundantly  above  that  for  which  he  expressly 
came.  Naaman  said,  ‘‘Well,  I will  go  to  him,  and  I will 
see  if  this  man  can  cure  me  of  this  leprosy ; and  he  not 
only  got  a new  skin,  so  that  his  flesh  came  again  as  the 
flesh  of  a little  child,  but  he  got  a new  God,  a new  theo- 
logical conception,  a new  standpoint  from  which  to  view 
the  universe,  and  to  estimate  his  own  life  ; and  that  is 
what  is  always  happening,  and  must  occur  to  the  end  of 
time.  You  cannot  come  to  God  for  any  one  bounty  proper 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


135 


to  be  received  at  His  hands,  without  receiving  with  it  some 
additional  blessing,  if  so  be  you  are  willingly  opening  your 
heart  to  receive  whatever  God  in  His  Almighty  power  and 
beneficent  grace  may  be  pleased  to  give  you.  Naaman, 
then,  has  gone  back  again  with  a clean  flesh,  the  leprosy  all 
gone,  and  with  the  God  of  Israel  as  his  God,  and  now  Syria 
once  more  projects  war  against  Israel.  I want  to  study 
the  projection  of  that  war,  and  how  things  occur  under 
combinations  of  circumstances  to  which  you  and  I ought 
to  be  no  strangers.  Begin,  if  you  please,  at  the  eighth 
verse. 

‘‘  Then  the  king  of  Syria  took  counsel  with  his  servants, 
saying,  In  such  and  such  a place  shall  be  my  camp.” 
Was  there  anything  amiss  then  ? I think  there  was. 
Not  on  the  bare  reading ; the  verse  reads  well  enough — 
it  seems  to  have  been  a proper  thing  to  do— and  some- 
times we  do  a proper  thing  improperly.  Sometimes  we 
tell  the  truth  falsely.  How  is  that } In  the  telling  of 
truth  itself,  we  may  give  a false  impression — we  may 
preach  the  gospel  destructively  : we  have  not  only  to 
announce  the  good  news — the  glad  tidings — but  to  do  it  in 
the  right  tone,  with  gentleness  and  tenderness  and  persua- 
siveness and  sympathy.  And  falling  down  before  men,  we 
have  oft  entreated  them  with  vehemence  and  passion, 
that  they  may  accept  the  testimony  we  bring.  Well,  but 
the  king  of  Syria  consulted  his  servants — was  not  that 
right } Possibly  so — if  he  knew  who  his  servants  were. 
Is  there  any  one  man  on  earth  you  can  really  trust  in  a 
crisis  ? Are  there  not  some  points  in  life  when  the  true 
consultation  is  divine  and  not  human  ? Are  there  not  some 
critical  moments  in  your  life  when  you  must  not  speak  to 
the  nearest  and  dearest  friend  you  have,  when  your  life 
must  culminate  in  a supreme  agony,  and  all  your  com- 
munications must  be  upward,  and  not  lateral,  and  never 
downward  ? Well,  methinks  that  grand  old  Roman  was 
right  when  he  said  : “ If  I thought  the  shirt  on  my  back 
heard  what  I was  saying  to  myself  I would  tear  it  ofif  and 
burn  it.”  That  man  will  succeed,  will  do  something  in  life. 
He  knows  that  there  are  times  to  be  familiar,  conversa- 
tional, communicative,  when  you  may  say  to  the  public. 
Now  mv  heart  is  open,  come  in  and  see  all  you  can  see, 
and  see  it  for  nothing  ” — and  this  wins  great  reputation  for 


136  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


geniality  and  communicativeness.  People  talk  to  him  as 
a very  familiar,  condescending,  kind,  amicable,  and  com- 
municative man  altogether  ; but  he  knows  exactly  when  to 
shut  the  door  and  to  look  dumb.  Do  you  know  what  it  is 
to  look  deaf.?  You  cannot  look  deaf  if  you  are  hearing 
all  the  time  unless  you  have  the  supreme  mastery  of  your- 
self. A deaf  person  looks  so  different  from  you — I see 
that  you  are  hearing,  in  your  skin,  in  your  eyes  ; the  very 
hair  on  your  head  says,  I am  listening  all  the  time  ; I 
am  feigning  deafness,  but  I hear  all  you  are  saying.  You 
cannot  be  deaf  unless  you  are  supremely  master  of  your 
own  nature  ; but  this  great  man,  this  great  Roman,  looked 
dumb,  looked  deaf,  looked  stone-like.  There  was  no  read- 
ing his  face.  Ben-hadad  having  got  an  idea,  could  not 
be  trusted  with  it.  He  called  in  his  servants,  constituted 
them  into  a kind  of  Divine  Consensus,  and  began  to  tell 
them  what  he  was  going  to  do — and  there  was  an  end 
of  him. 

How  many  people  would  succeed  if  they  could  be  silent? 
— how  many  people  would  do  well  in  life  if  they  knew 
when  to  hold  their  tongues  ? They  would  do  exceedingly 
well  if  they  had  not  so  many  people  in  their  confidence; 
but  there  are  some  people  who  chatter,  chatter,  chatter, 
always  telling  what  they  are  going  to  do — what  they  are 
going  to  do  to-morrow,  what  they  are  going  to  do  the  day 
after  to-morrow, — and  they  never  do  it.  How  can  they — 
talking  so  much  about  it  beforehand  ? It  is  like  running 
five  miles  before  leaping  over  a wall — you  are  so  tired  with 
the  running  that  when  you  come  to  the  leap  you  cannot 
do  it.  Be  quiet  sometimes — keep  your  own  counsel.  “ How 
is  it.  Commodore,’'  said  a man  to  old  Mr.  Vanderbilt,  who 
is  just  now  dead,  ‘‘that  you  have  succeeded  so  well  in  life?" 
“Well,"  said  the  old  man,  “first,  by  minding  my  own 
business,  and  secondly,  by  never  telling  anybody  what  I 
was  going  to  do,  but  just  doing  it."  Ben-hadad  was  no 
Commodore  Vanderbilt  in  this  respect.  He  called  all  the 
people  together  and  said  in  effect,  “ I know  now  what  I 
shall  do,"  and  he  told  them  all  about  it,  and  thus  split 
himself  up  in  a dozen  different  directions.  He  lost  that 
concentration,  that  consolidation,  that  cannon-ball-like 
compactness  of  perfect  solitude  which  gives  a man  supreme 
power  in  supreme  and  definite  crises  in  life. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


137 


Let  us  see  then  what  happened  after  all  this  talk.  ‘‘  And 
the  man  of  God  sent  unto  the  king  of  Israel,  saying, 
Beware  that  thou  pass  not  such  a place ; for  thither  the 
Syrians  are  come  down.  And  the  king  of  Israel  sent  to 
the  place  which  the  man  of  God  told  him  and  warned  him 
of,  and  saved  himself  there,  not  once  nor  twice,”  but  many 
a time.  So  the  thing  got  abroad.  Well,  now,  here  is 
Elisha.  Elisha  is  no  soldier.  No;  Elisha,  to  use  a modern 
phrase,  never  fired  a gun  in  his  life.  No — he  knew  more 
about  a plough  than  about  firearms  — excuse  my  modern- 
izing the  instance.  What  did  he  do  ? “ There  was  a little 

city,  and  few  men  within  it ; and  there  came  a great  king 
against  it,  and  besieged  it,  and  built  great  bulwarks 
against  it ; now  there  was  found  in  it  a poor  wise  man, 
and  he,  by  his  wisdom,  delivered  the  city.”  What  did 
Elisha  do } What  you,  dear  little  child,  can  do : what 
you,  feeble  woman,  can  do  : what  you,  man  of  no  public 
status  or  influence,  can  do.  What  was  that  ? He  warned 
— he  gave  warning,  he  gave  caution,  and  suggested  pru- 
dence. He  pointed  out  the  difficulty  and  how  to  avoid  it. 
Just  observe,  then,  how  we  serve  one  another  in  life.  The 
Apostle  Paul  complains  that  if  a man  do  not  give  a certain 
sound  upon  the  trumpet  the  soldiers  cannot  prepare  them- 
selves for  battle.  But  do  we  want  trumpeters  as  well  as 
soldiers  ? A man  that  gives  an  uncertain  blast  on  the 
trumpet  ruins  the  fight  on  his  own  side  ; the  man  whose 
trumpet  is  in  tune,  whose  breath  is  equal  to  the  occasion, 
who  blows  a blast  that  strikes  inspiration  into  an  army,  is 
himself  a crowd  of  soldiers.  Just  observe  how  we  serve 
one  another.  Elisha  was  a man  of  thought — a man  of 
prayer — a man  of  contemplation,  and  yet  he  sends  warn- 
ing to  the  king  of  Israel,  and  by  a warning  word  he  saves 
the  king  of  Israel  from  the  arrows  of  the  Syrian  assailants. 
Now  there  be  some  persons  who  cannot  reckon  up  the  in- 
fluence of  people  who  do  nothing  but  talk,  and  teach,  and 
pray,  and  warn.  They  have  not  got  the  true  conception  of 
work.  Their  conception  of  work  is  limited  to  the  arms. 
Only  give  a man  plenty  to  do  with  his  hands  and  they 
claim  him  as  a working  man.  But  if  a man  so  live  as 
apparently  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  his  arms  at  all,  then 
it  is  impossible  for  the  people  to  whom  I am  now  referring 
to  consider  the  man  as  anybody  working — whereas  Elisha 


138  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


did  more  with  his  one  warning  word  than  if  he  had  gone 
to  the  head  of  the  Israelitish  army  and  led  the  hosts  into 
the  thick  of  the  fight.  That  is  a word  for  you,  mother — 
that  is  a word  for  you,  sister — that  is  a word  for  you.  letter- 
writer,  you  who  only  sit  at  home  and  write  a few  kind  notes 
to  your  friends  — for  you,  more  public  writer  — for  you, 
student — for  you,  minister — for  you,  praying  soul.  We 
can  all  serve  one  another.  The  men  that  came  back  from 
Jerusalem  and  spoke  to  Nehemiah  had  done  nothing 
whatever  themselves  to  repair  the  wall — they  only  told 
Nehemiah  about  it,  and  Nehemiah  went  and  did  it. 

So  Elisha  heard  of  this,  and  warned  the  king  of  Israel, 
and  saved  him  from  a great  battle  with  the  Syrians.  Use 
your  influence;  do  what  you  can.  You  want  greater 
power — use  the  talent  you  have.  You  shall  see  Rome  also 
if  you  live  faithfully  in  the  cities  and  villages  in  which 
Providence  appoints  your  place.  Have  you  ever  warned 
anybody?  This  Book  excels  all  other  books  in  this  one 
particular — monition — warning — caution.  Other  books  are 
always  controverting,  discovering,  fighting  illuminated 
battles,  and  registering  things  and  putting  things  in  order, 
and  settling  debates,  and  strifes,  and  contentions  with 
some  other  book  somewhere  else  in  the  world.  But  this 
dear  old  Book  is  full  of  warning,  and  sympathy,  and 
direction,  and  practical  counsel ; it  gets  into  the  soul,  it 
takes  the  language  of  our  necessity,  it  prays  with  us,  sings 
with  us,  gives  us  words  wherewith  to  express  our  best  emo- 
tions, helps  our  life  upward  and  onward — a right  positive 
Book,  a grandly  affirmative  Book.  Yes,  if  I could  but 
listen  to  its  voice — and  you — we  should  always  find  our- 
selves on  the  right  road,  in  the  right  temper,  in  the  right 
spirit,  with  a very  grateful  heart  and  two  very  industrious 
hands,  in  the  service  of  God.  Don’t,  then,  snub  men  who  are 
not  working  in  your  own  particular  way.  This  is  the  great 
difficulty  we  have  with  one  another.  There  is  only  a man 
here  and  there,  a very  rare  man  indeed,  who  sympathises 
with  other  people’s  way  of  working,  who  does  not  think  if 
you  don’t  do  just  what  he  does  and  nothing  else,  you  are 
not  working.  But  an  ordinary  man  thinks  if  you  go  to  his 
meeting,  read  his  books,  dance  his  dances,  and  fuss  away 
in  his  little  fussinesses,  then  you  are  working.  But  if  you 
have  any  other  conception  of  service,  and  are  working  from 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


139 


any  other  conception  of  stewardship  in  the  sight  of  God 
which  he  cannot  understand,  you  will  very  likely  be 
troubled  in  your  progress  by  his  very  small  censure,  by  his 
vicious  malediction.  Oh  that  we  could  just  know  that  we 
are  all  working  in  the  way  we  can.  I see  a man  yonder 
working  in  a way  I cannot — I wish  I could — but  I must 
work  in  the  way  I can.  Another  says,  I can  only  pray — 
that  is,  only  move  Omnipotence,  only  help  to  bring  Al- 
mightiness  to  your  side — only  speak  to  God  for  you — it  is 
a wonderful  ‘‘only''  that.  You  be  faithful  to  that  “only" 
and  you  will  help  all  men,  you  will  help  the  universe. 

Now  then  Elisha,  the  quiet,  contemplative,  observant 
man,  with  an  ear  quick  to  all-but-infinite  sensitiveness, 
hearing  whisperings  where  any  other  man  could  hear 
nothing  but  a great  silence,  and  he  is  warning  and  thus 
saving,  teaching  and  thus  delivering — and  it  will  be  a bad, 
black,  woeful  day  for  this  England  when  you  lose  the 
teachers  and  the  warhers,  the  seers,  the  prophets  who  dream 
dreams  and  see  visions,  and  can  lift  themselves  up  in  all 
the  erectness  of  a majesty  higher  than  their  own,  to  declare 
to  men  what  they  ought  to  do  and  what  they  ought  not  to 
attempt.  Let  us  pray  for  our  prophets,  and  say,  “ God 
bless  our  teachers,  every  one."  “ Therefore  the  heart  of  the 
king  of  Syria  was  sore  troubled  for  this  thing."  There  he 
is  again — Oh  that  men  should  live  on  such  poor  flats,  poor 
planes,  low  levels  ! The  king  is  troubled  and  he  calls  his 
servants.  Oh  if  he  had  only  been  a wise  king,  if  he  had 
only  looked  upward  and  inward,  if  he  had  only  been  quiet 
with  a prayerful  quietness  and  reverence,  he  might  have 
done  something  more  in  that  contest.  But  he  lives  among 
men,  a social  man,  a chattering  man,  one  of  those  people 
who  could  not  spend  an  evening  at  home — one  of  those 
persons  who  always  want  to  get  away  from  their  own  com- 
pany, one  of  those  men  who  says,  “ you  know — what  I can 
do,  sitting  here  ? what  can  I do — I wish  somebody  would 
come  in — I wonder  where  I can  go  to,  I do  so  want  to 
talk  ! " What  do  they  do  in  life  ? Nothing — but  make  a 
noise.  O my  friend,  when  thou  art  in  trouble,  call  upon 
God — call  upon  the  Divine,  call  upon  the  Supernatural 
It  does  you  good  to  think  that  the  firmament  above,  if  it 
be  but  blue  steel,  brightened  here  and  there  with  a patine 
of  fine  gold — it  does  you  good  to  think  you  can  catch  hold 


140  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


of  that  great  blue  arch  and  lift  yourself  up  an  inch  ! That 
will  do  you  good.  But  it  is  this  motion  that  does  you  harm 
— getting  down,  as  if  the  help  were  yonder.  The  help  is 
never  yonder.  Whatever  your  perplexity  or  difficulty,  the 
help  is  always  up — never  down,  never  lateral.  There  it  is 
that  religion,  in  any  true  and  grand  sense  of  it,  does  a man 
infinite  good —just  to  get  into  his  head  the  idea  that  there 
is  a greater  power  than  himself,  if  it  be  but  the  wind,  or 
the  great  solemn  thunder,  or  the  mighty  rolling  stars  and 
suns.  To  fall  down  on  your  knees  and  look  up  at  the  sun, 
clasping  your  hands  in  reverence  before  his  brilliant  image 
— that  will  do  you  good.  It  is  this  curse  of  always  living 
on  a low  level  that  ruins  us — calling  in  our  equals,  calling 
in  our  inferiors,  calling  in  the  people  that  are  round  about 
us.  It  is  all  right  enough  under  given  circumstances,  as  a 
secondary  palliative  and  as  a help  in  many  a misery — all 
right  enough.  But  there  ought  to  be  a supreme,  glad,  re- 
ligious aspiration  going  out  of  the  heart  to  find  the  big, 
the  mighty,  the  All,  the  circumference  of  things.  O my 
friend,  if  thou  couldst  but  do  that,  everything  would  be 
under  thy  feet.  Thou  shouldst  be  calm,  and  h^ppy,  and 
very  glad  always ; but  as  long  as  you  look,  and  look,  along 
the  line  of  your  eye- — have  everything  hung  so  that  you  can 
get  it  there,  you  are  dwarfing  the  universe,  you  are  dwarf- 
ing yourself,  limiting  <the  infinite  and  forgetting  the  eternal. 
But  in  distress,  in  difficulty,  call  upon  God — ay,  and  if  He 
be  but  a wooden  stick,  a poor  deaf,  dumb  stone,  a blind 
thing  thou  hast  thyself  chiseled  out  of  the  forest,  it  will  do 
thee  good,  if  thou  canst  but  lay  hold,  however  dimly,  of  the 
idea  that  there  is  something  greater  than  thyself,  and  out 
of  that  greatness  thy  help  will  come.  How  much  more 
then  to  lay  hold  of  the  Father  in  Heaven — called  with 
such  infinite  pathos  and  delicacy  the  God  and  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Oh  how  full  these  words!  what 
sap,  what  juice,  what  blood,  what  life,  what  music,  what 
light  I The  God — Oh  how  grand  ! The  God  and  Father — 
more  tender  ; equally  majestic,  but  condescending  : a King 
stooping.  The  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
— humanized,  standing  beside  us,  looking  into  our  eyes, 
offering  infinitude  as  our  help  and  eternity  as  the  grand 
duration  of  our  growth  and  progress  ! 

**  And  one  of  his  servants  said.  No,  my  lord  the  king,’* 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


141 


you  are  quite  wrong  in  your  supposition — there  is  no 
treachery  among  your  servants,  but  Elisha,  the  prophet 
that  is  in  Israel,  telleth  the  king  of  Israel  the  words  that 
thou  speakest  in  thy  bedchamber/’  Yes,  it  is  this  ghostly 
element  in  life  that  ought  to  make  the  highest  man  amongst 
us  pause.  I have  often  said  this ; I do  not  know  why  I 
should  hesitate  to  say  it  again.  If  there  was  nothing  but 
what  we  could  see,  nothing  behind,  above,  beyond — begin 
here,  pass  over  there,  end  yonder — if  this  were  all,  then  I 
do  not  see  why  the  old  heathen  programme  should  not  be 
re-written  in  coloured  ink  on  silken  banners,  waved  over  all 
the  concourse  of  humanity  everywhere — let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die  ! Let  us  die  fat,  let  us  die  drunk,  let  us 
die  intoxicated  with  empoisoned  delight ; if  we  begin  here, 
tarry  there,  fall  yonder,  up  with  the  banner — eat  and  drink, 
to-morrow  we  die  ! But  it  is  this  ghostly  element,  the 
shaking  of  the  veil,  the  unaccountable  noise,  the  whistling 
in  the  window,  the  creaking  on  the  floor,  the  upsetting  of  a 
whole  scheme  of  probabilities  we  thought  were  built  up  to- 
gether with  something  stronger  than  the  strongest  cement 
ever  used  in  the  uniting  and  cohesion  of  materials,  the  up- 
setting of  our  calculations,  the  shaking  down  of  all  our  little 
plots,  plans,  schemes,  and  arrangements,  the  laying  things 
down  there,  and  saying  we  shall  find  them  in  the  morning, 
and  when  the  morning  comes,  they  are  gone  ! — saying. 
Good-bye,  to  a man,  and  hearing  the  man  is  dead  in  the 
morning ! It  is  these  ghostly  things  that  make  us  uncer- 
tain and  troubled  and  insecure,  and  that  makes  an  atheist 
fit  a clause  of  reservation  in  all  his  cold  covenants  and 
mercenary  agreements.  Even  he  must  have  his  ‘‘  if.”  O 
poor  coward  and  fool — why  not  develop  him,  that  he  can 
put  his  arms  around  the  whole  firmament.  “ I hold  it  fast, 
and  will  do  with  it  what  I like  ” — why  not  ? Develop 
him,  and  that  great  great  God  lets  us  get  the  tower  a long 
way  up,  and  then  He  comes  and  puts  one  foot  on  it,  and 
down  it  goes. 

‘‘  And  the  king  'of  Syria  was  troubled,”  and  the  word 
rendered  troubled  is  a very  remarkable  word — “ tempested.” 
There  were  in  his  spirit  counterblasts  of  wind  from  the 
east,  from  the  west,  from  the  north,  from  the  south,  whirl- 
ing, swirling,  raging,  roaring,  storming  his  soul.  He  called 
his  servants  in — just  what  we  do  when  we  hear  noises  we 


142 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


do  not  like.  We  ring  the  bell — we  are  not  afraid,  you 
know,  but  we  just  like  to  see  what  this  is.  Are  you  not 
afraid,  you  lying  man } If  you  had  seen  yourself  two 
seconds  ago  with  a face  blanched  as  death,  and  now  that 
your  servants  have  come  in  you  are  looking  as  if  you  were 
never  afraid  in  your  life.  Better  make  our  account  with 
these  invisible  presences,  these  incalculable  quantities,  these 
ghostly  elements,  these  subtle  unnameable,  incalculable 
ministries  that  are  about.  He  only  has  settled  the  account 
with  them  who  has  made  his  peace  with  God,  and  says, 
‘‘  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength,  therefore  will  I not  fear 
though  the  mountains  be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the 
sea.  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength,  and  a very  present 
help  in  trouble.  There  is  a river  the  streams  whereof  make 
glad  the  city  of  God.’'  There  have  been  men  in  that  high 
calm,  in  that  imperturbable  peace,  in  that  infinite  tranquil- 
lity. Such  peace  have  they,  O God,  who  love  and  follow 
Thy  holy  law. 

Well,  the  king  of  Syria  having  found  out  that  this  was 
the  case,  plucked  up  his  courage  again — said,  I am  not 
afraid— do  not  suppose  it  ; if  this  is  all,  I will  soon  end  it. 
Have  you  ever  read  the  histories  of  the  Welsh  preachers, 
those  grand  old  thunder-storms  that  spoke  from  the  hill- 
sides to  thousands  of  people  and  made  them  quail } One 
of  these  men,  whose  son  is  a Member  of  Parliament  in  our 
own  House  of  Commons  to-day,  was  preaching  away,  and 
saying  as  only  a Welshman  can  say,  and  only  say  it  in 
Welsh — “The  day  of  judgment  is  come — the  day  of  judg- 
ment is  come  ! ” And  there  was  an  orchard  between  him 
and  a house  in  which  dwelt  a very  ungodly  squire,  and  this 
man  heard  through  the  trees  this  funereal  voice — “ The  day 
of  judgment  is  come — the  day  of  judgment  is  come  ! ” and 
he  took  down  the  prayer  book  at  once  and  began  to  gabble 
over  his  prayers  ; rung  the  bell  and  called  in  his  servant — 
Ben-hadad’s  old  device,  always  get  somebody  up  stairs  to 
talk  with — and  he  said,  “John,  don’t  you  hear  that  strange 
voice — ‘ The  day  of  judgment  is  come  ’ } ” “ Oh,  no,  sir,  it’s 
only  old  Mr.  So  and  So,  the  Welsh  preacher,  preaching  over 
there  ” — “ Oh,  that’s  it,  is  it — don’t  imagine  there’s  anything 
the  matter  with  me — that’s  it,  is  it } ” And  away  went  the 
prayer  book.  That  is  how  it  will  be  with  you — some  of 
you.  I have  seen  you  in  a thunder-storm,  getting  down 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


143 


into  the  cellar, — into  the  coal-house,  and  shutting  all  the 
windows  and  bolting  the  doors,  as  if  you  could  bolt  out  the 
lightning  and  exclude  the  infinite.  And  yet  if  all  is  right, 
what  do  you  care  ? Ben-hadad  said.  Oh,  that’s  it,  is  it  ? If 
that’s  the  case,  we’ll  have  him.  Go  and  spy  where  he  is, 
that  I may  send  and  fetch  him.”  See ! that  is  the  plan ; 
spy  where  he  is  and  fetch  him.  Very  good.  “Therefore 
sent  he  thither  horses,  and  chariots,  and  a great  host  ; 
and  they  came  by  night  and  compassed  the  city  round 
about.” 

That  is  one  of  the  finest  things  in  the  history,  and  that 
is  occurring  everyday.  It  is  the  unconscious  tribute  which 
the  material  is  always  paying  to  the  spiritual,  the  uncon- 
scious homage  which  baffled  men  always  pay  to  the  Chris- 
tianity they  would  destroy.  Ay,  how  many  Ben-hadads 
have  sent  horses  and  chariots  and  a great  host  to  take  the 
Cross  ? What  a compliment  to  Elisha.  We  thought  he 
would  have  said,  “ Here,  you  young  whipper-snapper — the 
youngest  of  you — you  can  go — go  and  bring  that  man  here 
— two  of  you  run  down  and  fetch  him.”  No  ; it  is  an 
awkward  thing,  fetching  a prophet ; an  awkward  business, 
fighting  the  spiritual.  So  he  sent  horses  and  chariots  and 
a great  host,  and  told  them — “ Go  by  night  and  make  a 
cordon  round  uie  city,  and  see  that  he  does  not  escape 
you.”  Ben-hadad,  why  all  this  fuss  about  one  man  ? — a 
quondam  plough-boy,  with  nothing  but  the  mantle  upon 
his  shoulder ; why  not  send  down  anybody,  any  boy,  any 
Bashi-Bazouk,  to  fetch  him  along  ? That  is  what  they  are 
always  doing,  and  so  we  have  shops  opened  to  put  down 
Christian  teaching,  and  great  hosts  of  people  going  to  take 
the  cross,  and  vast  armies  and  crowds  of  assailants,  saying, 
“ Now  then,  this  is  the  critical  moment — this  is  the  tre- 
mendous agony.”  And  where  is  Christianity  to-day  ? 
Where  it  is  most  wanted — in  the  aching  heart  ; in  the 
bruised,  wounded  spirit  ; in  the  contrite,  self-accusing,  self- 
renouncing  soul,  repeating  all  its  old  miracles,  and  none  of 
its  majesty  is  lost — none  of  its  almightiness  impaired. 
Always  understand  this,  my  friend,  that  the  more  people 
it  requires  to  take  a man,  the  greater  that  man  is,  in  some 
way.  But  you  have  been  quite  surprised,  you  who  did  not 
know  better,  quite  surprised  how  some  people  are  exceed- 
ingly distressed  and  annoyed  if  they  see  so  much  as  a 


144 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


single  paragraph  in  a newspaper  against  a man.  The 
finest  thing  would  be  to  have  the  whole  newspaper  against 
you,  and  twenty  more  papers,  and  nearly  all  the  papers. 
What  would  it  mean  } It  would  mean  that  there  is  some 
grit  in  you,  some  stuff  in  you,  some  quality  in  you.  Don't 
suppose  that  all  these  people  like  to  go  and  kick  a gate 
post  simply  for  the  sake  of  kicking.  So  if  it  is  only  a gate 
post,  why  kick  it } But  the  more  men  that  are  sent  to  take 
you,  the  more  they  sneer,  the  more  they  assail  you,  de- 
pend upon  it,  it  is  the  unconscious  tribute  which  a mean 
man  must  pay  to  the  majestic — that  the  false  man  must 
pay  to  the  true — that  the  disappointed  man  must  pay  to 
the  man  who  is  successful.  And  this  teaching  finds  its 
supreme  application  in  Christ  and  in  His  Church ; for  all 
the  hosts  of  hell  have  been  arrayed  against  Him,  and  no 
impression  has  yet  been  made  upon  the  Rock  upon  which 
the  Church  has  been  founded. 

And  after  Ben-hadad  had  sent  all  these  things,  “the 
servant  of  the  man  of  God  was  risen  early,  and  gone 
forth,  behold,  an  host  compassed  the  city  both  with  horses 
and  chariots.  And  his  servant  said  unto  him,  Alas,  my 
master ! what  shall  we  do  } " Of  course,  a very  natural 
question.  I like  to  see  a man  natural  ; the  man  comes 
in  and  says,  “ It's  all  over — there's  no  mistake  about  it,  I 
have  seen  it,"  and  when  a man  has  actually  seen  a thing 
what  can  you  say  } He  only  thinks  he  has  seen  it,  but 
you  can  never  persuade  him  better.  Some  people  say, 
seeing  is  believing.  There  was  never  a more  sophistical 
saying  made,  unless  you  define  what  seeing  is  ; but  see- 
ing, in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  is  not  believing.  No 
man  is  so  often  befooled  as  through  his  own  eyes,  his 
own  eyesight.  He  thinks  he  sees  everything,  and  he  sees 
nothing.  And  this  man  gave  it  up  at  once,  and  says,  what 
shall  we  do?  He  does  right,  he  comes  to  the  master.  Did 
Elisha  send  for  the  servant } No,  the  servant  came  to 
him.  That  is  the  way  to  live,  live  so  that  you  will  be 
master,  whether  you  live  in  the  parlour  or  the  kitchen, 
whether  you  are  master  in  sagacity,  in  knowledge,  in 
sympathy,  in  reception  of  impressions,  in  grasp  of  details — 
have  the  mastery  of  the  situation,  whatever  it  is,  because 
in  the  last  result  persons  always  send  for  the  supreme 
mind. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


145 


Now  this  man  says,  ‘‘  How  shall  we  do?'’  First  of  all, 
Elisha  says,  “ Fear  not.”  Fear  destroys  power,  fear  takes  a 
man’s  quality  out  of  him  ; no  man  is  himself  who  is  under 
the  chilling  cloud  of  a fear.  ‘‘  Do  not  fear  ; ” but  why  ? 
For  this  reason  : ‘‘they  that  be  with  us  are  more  than  they 
that  be  with  them.”  And  Elisha  said,  “Lord” — the  servant 
came  to  the  master,  and  the  master  went  to  his  Master, 
that  is  the  ascending  line  ; and  Elisha  said,  “ Lord,  open 
his  eyes — open  his  eyes — that  he  may  see.”  “ But  I have 
seen.”  “ Oh,  no,  open  his  eyes  that  he  may  see.”  “ Why,  I 
have  just  been  out,  I got  up  early,  I have  seen.”  Oh,  no  ; 
that  is  just  the  battle  we  have  as  Christian  teachers,  and 
as  high  teachers  of  any  kind.  Men  think  they  see  when 
they  do  not  see.  “What,”  a man  says,  “cannot  I read 
the  Bible  for  myself  as  well  as  you  can?”  No;  if  you 
are  only  reading  the  letter  and  I the  spirit,  you  cannot. 
If  you  are  only  an  etymologist  and  not  a sympathetic 
reader  of  the  word,  you  cannot  read  aright.  Elisha’s  ser- 
vant had  been  out  early  and  had  seen,  and  Elisha  prays 
that  his  eyes  may  be  opened  that  he  may  see.  There 
is  seeing  and  seeing,  reading  and  reading,  hearing  and 
hearing.  “ And  the  Lord  opened  the  eyes  of  the  young 
man,  and  he  saw;  and,  behold,  the  mountain  was  full  of 
horses  and  chariots  of  fire  round  about  Elisha,”  horse  for 
horse,  chariot  for  chariot,  fire  for  fire,  God  versus  Ben- 
hadad.  It  is  a tremendous  and  terrible  thing  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  living  God.  Another  horse  and  another 
chariot  from  heaven  till  all  your  forces  fall  off  in  the 
cloudy  perspective,  and  the  inner  concentric  circle  makes 
heaven  round  about  you.  Have  you  ever  seen  that 
flashing  circle  ? I have,  thank  God — thank  God.  Have 
you  never  seen  it — Providences  that  you  could  not  explain 
on  any  other  ground  than  merely  kindness  and  bene- 
ficence— deliverances  perfectly  superhuman  ? Do  you  not 
know  what  it  has  been,  lying  between  four  quaternions 
of  soldiers,  with  only  six  hours  between  you  and  the 
guillotine,  and  the  angel  of  God  coming  and  melting 
the  irons  and  taking  you  out  in  the  open  air  ? I do. 
That  is  how  I can  read  this  dear  old  Book.  If  it  is 
only  to  be  read  as  a book  taken  off  the  shelf,  I say. 
No,  I cannot  read  such  writing  as  that — I cannot  under- 
stand it — I give  it  up.  But  I do  not  come  to  it  like 


146  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


that.  You  see,  if  I come  to  it  thus — you  know — in  a 
kind  of — sort  of — semi-philosophical  way;  ah — with  a kind 
of  semi-philosophical  eye-glass  to  look  at  it  — then, 
of  course,  I shut  it  up.  How  do  I come  to  it?  Just 
in  proportion  as  I can  say — Thrice  was  I beaten  with 
rods,  a day  and  a night  have  I been  in  the  deep — in  perils 
in  the  city — in  perils  in  the  wilderness — in  perils  among  the 
heathen — in  perils  among  mine  own  countrymen — in  cold, 
in  weariness,  in  nakedness,  in  hunger — persecuted,  cast 
down,  perplexed,  impoverished,  embarrassed,  dismantled, 
unmanned — death  in  the  house,  mother  and  child  in  one 
coffin — no  bread  in  the  cupboard,  no  coal  in  the  grate,  no 
friend  outside  ! Ah,  if  I come  to  this  good  old  Book 
through  such  processes,  I say,  ‘‘  This  is  my  Book.*’  Are 
you  not  puzzled  by  the  miracles  ? Puzzled  by  the  mira- 
cles ? I have  lived  them.  I wanted  this,  these  are  the 
words  I have  been  hunting  for — yearning  for — I ' know 
them  all — it  is  my  native  tongue,  it  is  the  speech  of  my 
bleeding,  triumphant  heart.  I see  so  many  people  bring 
up  things  like  these,  and  they  find  them  very  burden- 
some ; but  if  you  can  get  down  upon  them  out  of 
a tragical,  tremendous,  awful  experience,  you  will  find 
them  all  written  in  plain  language — you  will  need  no 
interpreter  to  help  you  through  them — your  own  gashed, 
half-dead  heart  has  lived  every  syllable  of  the  narrative — 
has  gone  through  every  throb  of  that  strange,  that  tragic 


XVIII.  J osiah.  2 Chron.  xxxv.  21.  Forbear  thee  from 
77ieddllng  with  GodT 

JOSIAH  was  an  excellent  king  of  Judah.  There  had  been 
none  like  him  for  many  a long  day.  He  was  but  an  infant 
when  he  came  unto  the  throne,  that  is  to  say,  he  was  eight 
years  old.  The  written  law  had  been  lost  a very  long 
time  ; Josiah  had  nothing  by  way  of  example  to  draw  upon 
that  could  lift  him  up  towards  the  true  notion  of  worship 
and  service  to  the  real  God.  He  was  the  son  of  a bad 
man,  he  was  the  son  indeed  of  one  of  the  worst  men  that 
ever  lived  in  that  time  of  the  world’s  history.  Being  so 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


147 


young,  what  could  he  do?  Well,  he  found  something  in 
his  own  heart,  as  we  should  humanly  say,  that  started  him 
on  the  right  direction.  He  began  in  a very  wonderful  way 
to  do  very  excellent  things.  He  seemed  to  be  a kind  of 
instinctive  or  intuitional  reformer ; for  the  law  wjas  lost,  and 
the  priests  and  prophets  seemed  to  be  dumb,  and  the  poor 
young  king  wrought  away  with  such  light  as  he  had,  and 
in  the  course  of  his  working  he  did  what  you  will  do  if  you 
will  try — he  found  the  law. 

You  would  find  more  if  you  sought  for  more:  he  that 
doeth  the  will  shall  know  the  doctrine : he  who  uses  the 
little  candle  that  is  at  his  disposal  shall  be  led  out  into 
solar  light — twilight  to  begin  with,  but  growing  unceas- 
ingly and  unchangeably  up  into  the  mid-day  blaze  of 
glory. 

Josiah  then  found  the  law,  had  it  read  in  his  hearing, 
learned  from  it  that  every  king  of  Judah  and  of  Israel  had 
been  covenanted  to  keep  that  law  with  his  own  hand,  and 
he  felt  that  all  the  judgments  prophesied  against  the  house 
of  Israel  and  of  Judah  would  fall  upon  his  own  head, 
because  he  had  not  obeyed  the  letter  of  the  word  of  the 
Lord.  What  was  to  be  done.^  It  was  speedily  discovered 
that  the  wardrobe-keeper  had  a wife  in  whom  was  the 
spirit  of  prophecy,  and  so  to  Huldah  they  went,  and  she 
sent  comfortable  messages  to  the  young  king : she  said, 
“ Thus  saith  the  Lord  to  the  man  who  hath  acted  so, 
because  thine  heart  was  tender  and  thou  hast  feared  the 
Lord,  none  of  these  judgments  shall  fall  upon  thee,  but 
thou  shalt  be  gathered  to  thy  fathers  in  peace,  and  after 
that  there  shall  come  a black  day  upon  the  black  people.” 
So  Josiah  took  heart  again,  and  it  came  into  his  mind  to 
revive  the  old  ceremonies  and  ritual  of  Israel,  and  to  do 
wonderful  things  in  the  way  of  the  Passover,  and  we  read 
that  there  was  no  Passover  like  to  that  kept  in  Israel  from 
the  days  of  Samuel  the  prophet. 

Now  Josiah  will  go  down  to  his  fathers  in  peace— if  he 
behave  himself.  He  reigned  one  and  thirty  years,  and  in 
the  last  month  of  that  last  year  he  may  be  tripped  up. 
You  are  not  safe  while  you  are  on  the  water ; though  there 
be  but  eighteen  inches  between  the  ship  and  the  land  ; 
there  is  room  enough  in  eighteen  inches  to  sink  you  down. 
Get  on  the  land  before  you  sing—  be  on  the  rock  before 


148  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


you  take  the  trumpet  and  put  it  to  your  lips  : risk  nothing 
of  the  detail  of  your  life — an  iota  may  ruin  you,  the  miss 
of  the  smallest  writing  in  all  the  minutest  detail  may  lead 
to  loss,  to  death,  to  hell.  You  are  not  saved  by  lumps  of 
good  behaviour,  by  breadths  of  possible  morality : he  that 
is  unfaithful  in  the  least  will  be  unfaithful  in  the  greatest. 
Even  yet  Josiah  may  be  smitten  from  Heaven  after  his  one 
and  thirty  years  of  very  excellent  service — so  many  people 
get  wrong  just  at  the  last,  so  many  people  fall  into  the 
water  just  as  they  are  stepping  on  land.  What  I say  unto 
one,  I say  unto  all — Watch. 

The  miscarriage  in  the  case  of  Josiah  cam.e  about  in  this 
way.  There  was  a king  of  Egypt  called  Pharaoh  Necho, 
an  old  foe  of  the  Assyrian  empire.  He  came  up  to  fight 
against  Charchemish,  by  Euphrates,  and  Josiah  at  his  own 
instigation  went  out  against  Necho  king  of  Egypt.  ‘‘But 
Necho  king  of  Egypt  sent  ambassadors  unto  him,  saying, 
What  have  I to  do  with  thee,  thou  king  of  Judah?  I 
come  not  against  thee  this  day,  but  against  the  house 
wherewith  I have  war ; for  God  commanded  me  to  make 
haste.  Forbear  thee  from  meddling  with  God  who  is 
with  me,  that  He  destroy  thee  not.”  A noble  message — 
the  man  who  can  speak  so  calmly,  solemnly,  religiously, 
will  fight  well.  Have  no  faith  in  the  blustering  assail- 
ant— dread  the  man  who  challenges  thee  when  on  his 
knees. 

Josiah  would  not  turn  his  face  from  Necho,  but  disguised 
himself  that  he  might  fight  with  him  ; he  hearkened  not 
unto  the  words  of  Necho  from  the  mouth  of  God,  and 
came  to  fight  in  the  valley  of  Megiddo.  And  the  archers 
shot  at  king  Josiah,  and  the  king  said  to  his  servants, 
“ Hav^  me  away  ; for  I am  sore  wounded.”  So  he  was  put 
into  his  second  chariot,  and  carried  home.  And  be  died, 
and  was  buried  in  one  of  the  sepulchres  of  his  fathers — he 
who  might  have  been  gathered  to  his  fathers  quietly,  in 
the  very  peace,  in  the  infinite  sweetness  of  the  benediction 
of  God,  was  shot  like  a dog. 

Are  you  priding  yourself  upon  your  quarter  of  a cen- 
tury’s good  behaviour  } If  there  is  a day  yet  left  to  you 
there  is  time  enough  for  you  to  sponge  out  all  the  beauty 
of  the  past  and  to  find  your  way  into  perdition.  The 
question  most  deeply  interesting  to  us  is  : what  can  we 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


149 


learn  from  the  words  of  the  king  of  Egypt  that  will  help 
us  to  live  a true  and  useful  life  ? 

Do  we  not  learn  from  Necho — unfamiliar  name,  unac- 
customed minister — that  our  life  is  not  a series  of  unrelated 
accidents,  but  that  it  is  a part  of  a Divine  and  immutable 
scheme?  The  king  of  Egypt  said  in  effect  to  Josiah  : — 
This  is  no  doing  of  mine ; I am  secondary  in  the  matter  ; 

I am  not  following  the  lure  of  my  own  fancy  ; I am  im- 
pelled by  God  ; I am  here  as  His  servant — treat  me  as 
such,  or  God  will  cause  His  judgment  to  fall  upon  thee/’ 
This  is  the  only  solid  ground  to  occupy,  if  life  is  to  be 
more  than  a continual  exasperation  and  a bitter  dis- 
appointment. This  is  the  great  doctrine  of  Providence 
which  Jesus  Christ  never  ceased  to  teach,  and  never  ceased 
to  live.  When  He  began  His  life  what  did  He  say  ? 
Oh,  to  catch  the  first  words  from  those  eloquent  lips  ! — 
what  was  the  first  note  in  the  anthem  of  that  tragic  life? 
“Wist  ye  not  that  I must  be  about  my  Father’s  busi- 
ness ? ” What  was  the  last  note  in  that  same  anthem  ? 
Will  He  be  able  to  make  His  way  around,  so  as  to  finish 
where  He  began  ? Hear  Him  on  the  cross  : “ Father  into 
Thy  hands  I commend  my  spirit.”  Father  at  first.  Father 
at  last,  and  throughout  all  the  teaching  the  same  word 
glowed  like  a sun  that  kept  all  the  inferior  stars  in  their 
places. 

Have  you  been  centring  in  yourself,  beginning  with  your 
own  little  individuality,  carving  out  a small  system  of 
astronomy  with  your  own  shadow  as  a centre  ? Then  I 
do  not  wonder  that  your  faces  are  wrinkled,  and  that  there 
is  a murmur  in  your  speech,  a cloud  in  your  sky,  and  that 
you  are  lost  amid  all  the  little,  petty,  fretful,  vexatious 
details  of  life.  You  are  wrong.  We  are  invited  in  the 
Holy  Scripture  to  believe  that  we  are  notour  own  creators  ; 
that  we  live  because  God  wills  it ; that  the  very  hairs  of 
our  head  are  all  numbered  ; and  that  our  steps  are  of  the 
Lord’s  ordering  ; and  that  our  downsitting  and  our  uprising 
are  noted  in  Heaven  ; that  our  outgoing  is  observed,  and 
our  returning  regarded  in  the  Heavenly  books,  and  at  the 
last  our  deeds  and  words  will  be  judged  by  the  wise  God, 
whose  strength  and  wisdom  are  the  stay  of  the  universe. 
If  you  accept  that  faith  you  cannot  be  troubled  ; if  you 
have  any  other  creed,  the  weather,  the  climate,  will  have 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


150 


you  up  and  down  according  to  the  fickleness  of  its  own 
movement. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Bible  is  a doctrine  of  a Providential 
plan — a Divine  scheme.  Every  page  is  rich  with  the 
promises  of  this  doctrine,  not  a line  is  out  of  chord  with  its 
solemn  music.  Yea,  the  cross  itself  is  part  of  the  infinite 
plan,  foreseen  from  eternity  in  every  shadow^  of  its  gloom 
and  every  pang  of  its  agony.  So  then,  we  who  are  Chris- 
tians believe  that  God  is  over  all,  that  the  earth  is  in  the 
hollow  of  His  hand,  and  that  nothing  happens,  even  down 
to  the  falling  out  of  its  nest  of  the  youngest  sparrow  in  the 
early  summer,  without  His  notice.  A grand  conception, 
if  it  be  nothing  more — a marvellous  poem  if  only  a flash 
of  fancy — an  infinite  rock  if  a Divine  revelation.  And  yet 
I have  people  round  about  me — we  all  have — who  pray  to 
God  but  don’t  trust  Him.  Wonder  ye  that  their  prayers 
like  birds  with  broken  wings  die  on  the  threshold  of  the 
closet  in  which  they  were  conceived  } I don’t.  Any  other 
outcoming  of  such  prayer  would  vex  me  as  a practical 
satire  upon  Providential  ways.  The  great  doctrine  of 
Divine  Providence  is  like  the  sun,  distant,  inaccessible  ; 
but  the  exemplification  of  that  doctrine  in  personal  and 
practical  life  is  like  the  light  which  falls  out  of  the  sun, 
which  makes  morning  upon  our  window  and  the  abundant 
summer  round  about  our  houses.  I propose  therefore  now 
turning  from  the  great  general  doctrine  which  underlies 
the  message  which  the  king  of  Egypt  addressed  to  Josiah, 
to  look  at  some  of  the  minute  and  special  colourings  of 
this  doctrine  which  come  to  us  through  its  personal  trials 
and  realizations. 

I.  In  the  first  place  the  king  of  Egypt  considered  that 
the  doctrine  of  a Providential  plan  was  not  inconsistent 
with  difficulty,  contention,  loss,  and  suffering  on  the  part 
of  man.  Does  the  king  of  Egypt  say : “ This  is  Provi- 
dence, brother  king  Josiah,  sitting  on  my  throne,  my  head 
upon  a pillow  of  down,  my  feet  resting  on  velvet  soft  as 
moss,  my  whole  house  glowing  with  every  light  and  every 
beauty”.^  No  such  foolish  message  does  he  send  to  the 
king  of  Judah.  Necho  has  come  up  from  his  own  land, 
come  up  to  suffer,  come  up  to  fight,  come  up  to  shed 
blood  : yet  he  says,  “ God  sent  me.”  It  is  so  seldom  we 
think  God  sends  us  to  church  on  a wet  Sunday  : we  think 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


151 


He  is  so  fearful  of  us  taking  cold  that  surely  He  would 
never  be  so  unreasonable  as  to  ask  us  to  go  out  on  a wet 
Sunday.  In  the  old,  old  times,  when  heroes  shook  the 
earth  with  their  majestic  step,  they  were  not  afraid  of 
insects  and  wet  days — we  are.  “ ’Tis  true,  ’tis  pity,  pity 
his  his  true.” 

It  was  no  holiday  dream  that  had  touched  Necho’s 
ambition  or  vanity  : it  was  a service  of  severe  discipline, 
anxious  preparation,  daily  watching,  mortal  strife,  and  yet 
he  saw  God  over  it  all,  watching,  directing,  controlling.  I 
believe  there  are  some  of  us  who  believe  in  Providence 
when  we  are  in  a nice  large  boat  and  have  the  best  seat 
and  the  softest  cushion,  and  when  the  water  is  like  molten 
silver,  and  the  banks  are  near  and  green,  and  the  sky  far 
off  and  blue,  with  many  a keen  light  lodging  in  its  fleecy 
clouds.  Then  we  say,  Ah,” — pious  sigh  ! — “Ah,  after  all 
he  must  be  blind  who  does  not  see  God  in  this.”  It  is  sad, 
it  is  discouraging,  it  sometimes  makes  me  impious.  But 
to  hear  a poor  woman — a widow — who  has  buried  the  one 
boy  in  the  family  that  could  work  for  its  sustenance — to 
hear  her  say, — looking  at  all  the  little  girls  who  are  nearly 
helpless,  taking  up  the  corner  of  her  apron  to  wipe  off  the 
tear  from  her  poor  eyes — ‘‘God’s  will  be  done:  the  Lord 
gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away,  blessed  be  the  name 
of  the  Lord  ” — that  converts  me,  brings  me  home,  makes 
me  pray. 

O full  summer  Christian,  what  art  thou  doing  to  bring 
lustre  upon  thy  faith,  to  make  the  world  wonder  if  it  does 
not  worship — stand  aghast  and  amazed  if  it  do  not  join 
thy  psalm  of  resignation  } If  Christians  carried  out  their 
creed,  we  should  soon,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  convert  the 
heathen. 

II.  In  the  next  place  the  king  of  Egypt  acknowledged 
and  proclaimed  the  tender  and  ever  comforting  doctrine  of 
a special  personal,  detailed  Providence.  Did  he  say  to 
Josiah,  “The  Lord  reigneth  ” ? No.  Did  he  refer  Josiah 
to  great  abstract  principles  1 He  did  not.  What  said 
Necho — man  of  the  strange  mouth  and  the  unfamiliar 
voice  — He  said,  “God  commanded  me,  God  is  with  me.” 
There  is  a deism  which  says  that  the  whole  is  cared  for, 
but  the  part  must  take  care  of  itself.  The  king  of  Egypt 
reversed  the  doctrine,  saw  God  caring  for  the  part,  and 


152  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


reasoned  that  therefore  he  cared  for  the  whole.  This  is 
the  very  teaching  of  Christ : Christ  hath  some  strange 
ministers,  some  irregular  expositors,  some  preachers  who 
did  not  come  through  the  orthodox  gate,  and  therefore 
much  to  be  suspected  by  people  who  were  cradled  in 
orthodoxy  and  will  be  buried  in  it.  Jesus  Christ  and 
Necho  king  of  Egypt  were  at  one  in  this  high  sweet  note. 
Jesus  said,  “Wherefore,”  after  having  been  looking  at  bird 
and  lily,  and  small  things  accessible  to  all  generally, 
“Wherefore,  if  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field,  which 
to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  He  not 
much  more  clothe  you  ? ” If  we  believed  that,  the  remainder 
of  this  day  would  be  about  the  happiest  portion  of  our  life 
we  have  had,  in  the  individual  heart  or  at  the  family  table, 
for  many  a long  year. 

My  friend,  God  will  take  care  of  thee  if  thou  dost  live  in 
Him  and  for  Him,  and  dost  love  Him.  He  will  not  let 
thy  grey  hairs  go  down  with  sorrow  to  the  grave,  and  He 
will  find  the  key  of  that  shut  door,  and  He  will  search  for 
a rod  the  shadow  of  which  shall  make  the  Red  Sea  sever 
in  two  parts,  and  thou  shalt  go  through  on  dry  land. 
Have  faith  in  God — cast  thyself  upon  Him  and  wait 
patiently  His  will  and  the  revelation  of  His  purpose,  and 
if  thou  must  perish,  perish  with  thy  belief  upon  thy  lips. 
No  man  was  ever  wounded  to  death  by  that  dart. 

God  cares  for  the  individual,  for  the  unit.  Do  you  care 
for  your  family  as  an  abstraction  or  as  a reality } Do  you 
care  for  your  children  as  a whole,  or  do  you  care  for  them 
individually.^  Now  how  is  it  If  you  lump  them,  speak 
of  them  as  a poetical  abstraction,  I am  very  glad  not  to  be 
under  your  patronage.  But  if  you  pick  out  the  eldest,  and 
the  youngest,  and  the  three  or  four  or  five  between  and 
care  for  each  of  them  as  if  that  were  the  only  child,  then  it 
would  be  well  to  be  one  of  the  number.  And  so  you  do. 
Very  well  : “ If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good 
gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  Him  ” 
— give  the  Holy  Ghost  to  them  that  seek  Him — give 
direction  to  everyone  of  His  children.^  Why,  if  one  of 
them  went  astray,  what  would  He  do  } He  would  leave 
the  ninety  and  nine  and  would  go  after  that  which  was 
gone  astray.  The  God  that  gave  that  representation  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


153 


Himself  is  all  the  God  I want.  The  tenderness  of  that 
suggestion  shall  stand  for  learning,  for  criticism,  for  history, 
for  logic — it  shall  be  all  in  all.  You  will  find  me  there 
when  heart  and  flesh  do  fail. 

By  constantly  desiring  to  know  and  to  do  the  will  of 
God,  we  seem  to  link  our  small  life  to  the  great  chariot  of 
God’s  Providence  ; but  when  we  take  our  life  into  our  own 
keeping,  we  detach  ourselves  from  that  chariot  and  grope 
like  cripples  in  the  dark.  By  our  faith  we  draw  succour 
from  the  very  root  of  God’s  own  being,  but  by  our  unbelief 
and  self-sufficiency  we  lose  the  sustenance,  and  perish, 
because  we  seek  not  to  live  on  God’s  word  but  on  our  own. 
And  to-day  there  are  some  people  who  imagine  that  they 
can  get  along  pretty  well  without  God : who  are  the 
people  ? Debtors  to  His  mercy.  Who  are  the  people 
that  have  wounded  you  most  keenly  ? The  people  to 
whom  you  have  lent  money  and  shown  favours  and  been 
kind.  Nobody  else  can  thrust  the  knife  so  far  into  the 
heart.  Barbarian  and  Scythian  can  give  you  an  ugly 
thrust  that  shall  tear  the  skin,  but  man  of  your  own  house- 
hold, child  of  your  own  bones,  friend  that  has  sucked  the 
blood  of  your  love — he  can  thrust  the  blade  up  to  the 
hilt. 

When  a man  has  been  born  in  a Christian  land,  has 
been  reared  in  a Christian  atmosphere,  and  has  had  all  the 
advantages  of  a Christian  example  and  Christian  training, 
it  is  impossible  for  that  man  to  know  exactly  what  he 
would  have  been  and  what  he  would  have  done  but  for 
those  facts.  Travelling  the  other  day,  I saw  something 
which  illustrated  this  graphically.  I was  standing  in  the 
railway  station,  and  in  there  came  a carriage,  all  by  itself 
• — no  steam  engine,  just  a carriage  and  nothing  more. 
And  the  carriage  said,  ‘‘  There  is  a notion  abroad,  an  old- 
fashioned  but  mistaken  and  sometimes  mischievous  notion, 
that  it  is  needful  to  have  a steam  engine  in  order  to  draw 
a carriage.  Gentlemen,”  said  the  carriage,  looking  to  the 
few  persons  on  the  platform,  “ if  you  seek  an  argument  to 
disprove  that  fallacy,  circumspice,  look  around.”  And  we 
all  looked  around,  and  we  all  saw  it,  and  we  all  said,  Car- 
riage, this  is  very  wonderful  : you  brought  yourself  into 
this  station  apparently,  now  take  yourself  out  of  it.”  And 
the  carriage  is  standing  there  still,  and  will  stand  there  till 


154 


EXPOSITORY  SERMOXS  AND  OUTLINES 


it  rots, — it  cannot  turn  a wheel.  It  was  a detached  carri- 
age ; the  great  engine  that  brought  it  along  with  mighty 
sweep  went  on,  and  this  was  left  behind  to  spend  its 
momentum,  and  it  just  came  into  the  station  so  nicely  and 
thought  it  had  brought  itself  in.  And  there  be  many 
human  detached  carriages.  They  have  had  fathers, 
mothers,  ministers,  schools,  lectures,  books : they  have 
been  brought  up  under  Christian  culture,  taken  so  far 
along  the  line : by  some  means  or  other  become  detached 
— asked  to  be  detached,  and  in  spending  their  dying 
momentum,  they  think  they  are  using  an  original  force. 
Be  it  mine  to  be  drawn  on  by  the  great  God  : I would  live 
and  move  and  have  my  being  in  God  ; my  smallest  affairs 
I would  spread  before  Him  ; I would  ask  Him  to  my  bed- 
chamber that  He  may  give  me  sleep ; I would  see  Him  at 
my  table  as  the  Giver  and  Sanctifier  of  my  daily  bread. 
He  shall  keep  my  door  lest  an  enemy  enter  or  a friend 
go  out — when  I pass  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death  I will  ask  no  other  comfort  than  His  rod  and 
staff*. 

The  text  is  in  2 Chronicles  xxxv.  2i.  It  is  very  notable 
that  we  should  have  this  great  saying  from  the  mouth  of 
a king  of  Egypt.  This  would  have  come  well  from  the 
lips  of  Jeremiah  who  prophesied  in  the  days  of  Josiah 
king  of  Judah.  It  would  have  befitted  the  burning  lips  of 
Ezekiel — it  would  have  fallen  well  from  the  eloquent 
mouth  of  Isaiah.  But  we  get  this  doctrine  from  Necho 
king  of  Egypt.  This  is  indeed  water  in  an  unexpected 
place — behold,  a fair  flower  in  a wide,  bleak  desert : 
hear  the  music  of  Heaven  played  upon  a strange  instru- 
ment. 

But  do  you  think  it  cannot  be  true  because  Necho  the 
heathenish  king  of  Egypt  said  it  ? Then  you  know  not 
that  it  is  part  of  the  Divine  plan  to  bring  strange  prophets 
into  the  ministry  of  the  word.  Were  there  not  ten  lepers 
cleansed?  Yes.  How  many  have  returned  to  give  glory 
to  God  ? One.  Who  is  he  ? A stranger.  Did  not  one 
man  stoop  to  pity  the  wounded  traveller  on  the  road,  to 
pour  in  wine  and  oil,  to  set  him  on  his  beast,  to  bring  him 
to  his  inn,  and  to  take  care  of  him  "!  Yes.  Who  was  it  ? 
A Samaritan.  Was  there  not  a woman  who  surprised  the 
Son  of  God  Himself  by  the  abundance  and  vividness  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


155 


her  faith — did  she  not  seem  to  turn  back  the  going  of  the 
Eternal?  She  did.  Who  was  she?  A woman — a Syro- 
phenician — no  well  dressed  Jewess  who  was  caught  within 
the  cordon  of  the  old  covenants  and  seemed  to  have  a 
hereditary  right  to  the  Divine  ministrations  and  privileges. 
Was  there  not  a man  who  once  said,  preaching-  the  gospel 
before  the  time,  “ it  was  expedient  that  one  man  die  for 
the  people”?  Yes.  Who  was  it — Peter?  No.  John? 
No.  Who  ? Caiaphas.  Certainly — it  is  God’s  way.  If 
we  hold  our  peace  He  will  make  the  stones  cry  out.  If 
we  English  Christians,  stall-fed,  if  we  hold  our  peace,  He 
will  make  the  stones  cry  out.  If  we  who  swallow  three 
sermons  a week,  and  would  kill  the  finest  preacher  that 
ever  breathed  by  drawing  from  him  and  never  giving  any- 
thing in  return — if  we  hold  our  peace.  He  will  make  the 
stones  cry  out.  If  we  who  know  about  Nazareth  and 
Bethlehem  and  Capernaum  and  Jerusalem  and  Golgotha 
and  Bethany — if  we  who  have  seen  the  blood  and  felt  the 
hot  healing  drops  fall  upon  our  guilt — if  we  are  dumb, 
the  heathen  shall  take  our  places  and  we  shall  be  shut 
out. 

j.  p. 


XIX.  Job.  JoBi.  8,  9.  ^^And  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan, 
Hast  thou  considered  My  servant  Job,  that  there  is  none  like 
him  in  the  earth,  a perfect  and  an  upright  man,  one  that  feareth 
God,  and  escheiveth  evil  2 Then  Satan  answered  the  Lord^  and 
said,  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought  2 

Among  the  mysteries  of  God’s  providence,  there  is,  per- 
haps, no  mystery  greater  than  the  law  by  which  suffering 
is  meted  out  in  the  world.  It  is  not  a mystery  that  sin 
should  bring  forth  sorrow ; it  is  not  a mystery  that  pain, 
disease,  and  death  should  be  the  fruit  of  man’s  fall.  He 
who  has  ever  reflected  on  the  nature  of  sin  will  not  wonder, 
that,  by  God’s  irreversible  law,  sin  should  bring  its  own 
chastisement  with  it.  There  is  such  a moral  heinousness 
in  the  defection  of  one  made  in  the  image  of  God,  from 
the  image  of  his  Maker ; there  is  something  so  appalling 
in  the  assertion  of  the  will  of  the  creature  in  independence 
of,  and  in  opposition  to,  the  will  of  the  Creator,  that  we 


156  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


cannot  question  the  justice  of  the  sentence  : In  the  day 

thou  eatest  thereof,  thou  shalt  surely  die.”  The  act  of  re- 
bellion against  a holy  God  must  carry  with  it  in  its  teem- 
ing womb  the  whole  vast  burden  of  human  misery  and 
pain.  We  feel  that,  were  it  otherwise,  the  moral  majesty 
of  God  would  be  assailed.  To  introduce  disorder  into  the 
moral  order  of  God,  to  mar  His  works — that  it  should  be 
possible  for  man  to  do  this,  is,  no  doubt,  evidence  of  man’s 
greatness ; but  could  man  do  this  with  Impunity,  that 
would  certainly  be  an  indisputable  proof,  either  that  no 
God  existed,  or  that  the  God  of  this  world  was  not  one 
whom  His  creatures  could  worship.  The  conscience  of 
men  in  all  ages — the  heathen  conscience  as  well  as  the 
Jewish  conscience  and  the  Christian  conscience — has  ac- 
quiesced in  the  justice  of  that  great  moral  constitution  of 
things  by  which  sin  becomes  its  own  chastisement.  The 
avenging  furies  haunt  the  evil-doer,  and  suffering  is  the 
expiation  of  guilt. 

But  the  really  difficult  problem  is  not  the  problem  of 
suffering  in  the  abstract ; it  is  the  problem  of  the  meting 
out  of  suffering  on  any  theory  of  sin  ; it  is  the  problem 
why  the  innocent  are  called  upon  to  suffer,  whilst  the 
guilty  too  often  escape  ; it  is  the  problem  why  the  purest, 
the  saintliest  of  our  race,  should  drain  to  the  dregs  the  cup 
of  sorrow,  while  the  ungodly  have  more  than  heart  could 
wish,  and  have  neither  afflictions  in  their  life,  nor  bands  in 
their  death.  This  is  the  problem  which  comes  before  us 
in  that  grandest  of  all  poems  which  has  ever  sounded  the 
deeps  of  the  human  heart — the  Book  of  Job. 

Job  is  a righteous  man,  living  in  the  fear  of  God,  and 
eschewing  evil.  He  is  a man  of  large  wealth  and  posses- 
sions ; but  he  does  not  spend  his  wealth  in  selfish  gratifi- 
cation. He  is  charitable  to  the  poor,  hospitable  to  the 
stranger,  bountiful  to  all.  He  was  not  only  the  greatest  of 
all  the  men  of  the  East,  he  was,  it  would  seem,  the  best. 
He  not  only  sat  as  a king  amongst  the  tribes  of  the  Kore- 
ish,  his  heart  was  as  comprehensive  as  his  wealth  ; when 
the  ear  heard  him,  then  it  blessed  him  ; when  the  eye  be- 
held him,  it  gave  witness  to  him.  But  in  a moment,  the 
sky  of  his  prosperity  is  overcast ; lightnings  leap  out  upon 
him  from  the  dark  thunder-cloud  ; blow  follows  blow  wnth 
fearful  rapidity.  Arab  hordes  sweep  away  his  cattle,  and 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


^S7 


plunder  his  homestead,  and  kill  his  servants.  A hurricane 
destroys  the  house  in  which  his  children  are  feasting,  and 
buries  them  in  its  fall.  All  this  in  a single  day  ; and,  as  if 
this  were  not  enough,  he  is  smitten  himself  with  a ghastly 
and  loathsome  form  of  leprosy ; and  then,  that  the  last 
aggravation  of  his  bitter  trial  may  not  be  wanting,  his 
wife,  breaking  down  under  the  load  of  her  misery,  pours 
venom  into  the  cup  of  his  suffering,  bidding  him  renounce 
his  faith  in  that  Being  who  was  visiting  such  punishments 
upon  the  head  of  His  servant,  and  die  with  a blasphemy 
upon  his  lips. 

On  what  principle  of  justice  is  such  a man  made  to 
suffer  ? Here  is  a man  exemplary  in  his  life,  devout,  pure, 
charitable,  of  sterling  integrity,  of  pronounced  piety,  hav- 
ing a living  and  sincere  faith  in  God.  Why  is  he  crushed 
with  this  awful  suffering?  This  is  the  problem  we  have 
before  us  in  this  magnificent  drama.  Contrast  the  prob- 
lem for  one  moment  with  that  which  meets  us  in  the  most 
impressive  of  Greek  tragedies,  with  that  drama  of  ^schy- 
lus  the  Proinetheus  VinctuSy  of  which  the  poet  Coleridge 
said  truly,  that  it  was  not  so  much  a tragedy,  as  tragedy 
itself  Prometheus  has  been  the  benefactor  of  mankind. 
He  has  entered  into  a sublime  conflict  with  Zeus,  the 
supreme  Deity.  In  his  efforts  for  the  good  of  the  race,  he 
is  crushed  by  his  adversary,  and  he  dies  with  defiance  on 
his  lips.  The  conception,  no  doubt,  is  grand,  but  the  chief 
element  of  grandeur  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  Power,  and 
not  Righteousness,  which  sits  on  the  throne ; and  re- 
bellion against  supreme  Power,  which  is  not  supreme 
Right,  must  always  be  grand.  But  the  struggle  in  the 
history  of  Job  is  far  nobler.  He  knows  that  the  God  he 
worships  is  not  supreme  Power  only,  but  supreme  Right- 
eousness also.  This  it  is  that  makes  his  trial  so  hard. 
With  him  the  difficulty  is  to  reconcile  the  God  of  his  con- 
science and  his  faith,  with  the  God  who  is  Ruler  of  the 
world.  On  the  throne  of  his  heart  sits  One  who  is  abso- 
lutely righteous.  On  the  throne  of  the  universe  sits  One 
who,  judging  by  the  facts  of  life,  is  not  absolutely  righteous. 
And  the  end  of  the  struggle  in  the  drama  of  Job  is  in- 
finitely more  instructive,  and  infinitely  more  consolatory, 
than  the  close  of  the  Prometheus.  It  is  not  the  defiance  of 
Power,  it  is  not  the  arrogant  assertion  of  self-righteous- 


158  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


ness  ; it  is  the  confession  of  ignorance  of  self,  and  ignor- 
ance of  God  ; it  is  the  submission  of  the  sorely-tried  man 
to  the  revelation  of  that  God  whose  revelation  he  had 
longed  for : ‘‘  I have  heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the 
ear ; but  now  mine  eye  seetK  Thee.  Wherefore  I abhor 
myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes.” 

The  problem  of  the  book,  as  I have  said,  is  that  hardest 
of  all  problems  to  faith,  as  to  unbelief, — the  problem  of 
innocent  suffering.  What  is  the  solution  of  it  ? You  have 
in  this  book  the  problem  worked  out,  and  three  answers 
given.  The  first  is  the  answer  of  the  three  friends  who 
came  to  condole  with  Job  in  his  affliction.  They  are  evi- 
dently men  of  position,  of  education,  of  intelligence,  of  re- 
ligious knowledge.  As  compared  with  their  neighbours, 
they  may  be  said  to  constitute  the  elite,  the  intellectual 
and  social  aristocracy  of  the  country.  There  are  repre- 
sentatives, moreover,  of  different  modes  of  thought.  Eli- 
phaz  is  the  man  of  prophetic  insight ; Bildad  is  the  sage, 
familiar  with  ancient  lore,  well  versed  in  the  traditions  of 
the  fathers  ; Zophar  is  the  average  religious  man  of  his 
day,  orthodox,  pious,  sincere,  but  withal,  bigoted,  fanatical, 
uncharitable,  a man  who  expects  every  one  to  agree  with 
him,  not  only  to  believe  what  he  believes, — neither  more 
nor  less, — but  to  express  that  belief  exactly  in  the  same 
rigid  formula.  But  the  three  friends,  though  representing 
three  different  types  of  character,  all  concur  in  one  thing  : 
they  all  hold  the  same  theory  of  the  Divine  government, 
and,  on  the  strength  of  that  theory,  they  all  condemn  Job. 
One  after  another,  these  officious  friends  take  up  their 
argument  against  Job;  and  one  after  another,  they  repeat 
the  same  commonplaces  of  their  creed.  God  is  just,  and 
therefore  God  rewards  the  righteous,  and  punishes  the 
wicked.  If  a man  suffers,  he  suffers  because  he  deserves  it. 
If  you  do  not  concede  this,  they  say  you  arraign  the 
justice  of  God.  Job  may  have  been  apparently  moral, 
upright,  religious,  but  he  must  have  cherished  some  secret 
sin,  and  it  is  this  which  has  called  down  upon  him  the 
vengeance  of  the  Most  High.  This  is  their  compendious 
system  of  theology.  This  was  the  system  in  which  they 
had  been  been  trained.  This  was  the  system  with  which 
they  were  content,  because  their  experience  had  probably 
furnished  them  with  no  glaring  violation  of  it ; or  because. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


159 


like  other  good  men  in  all  ages,  they  shut  their  eyes  to 
inconvenient  facts  which  clashed  with  their  system.  But, 
like  all  compendious  systems  of  theology,  it  breaks  down. 
It  is  not  large  enough  to  cover  the  facts.  You  cannot  sum 
in  little  the  mysteries  of  the  universe.  You  cannot  still 
the  anguish  of  beating  hearts,  crying  out  for  God  in  their 
desolate  misery,  by  giving  them  the  dead  dry  sand  of 
some  formula  which  you  presumptuously  label  as«the  truth. 
It  is  all  too  little  ; the  facts  of  God’s  world  are  too  broad 
for  your  system.  “ Who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents, 
that  he  was  born  blind?  Neither  did  this  man  sin,  nor 
his  parents ; but  that  the  works  of  God  might  be  made 
manifest  in  him.”  Centuries  of  teaching  could  not  root 
out  of  men’s  minds  the  obstinate  belief  that  the  suffering 
is  the  measure  of  the  sin.  But  the  sufferer  himself  repu- 
diates this.  Job  is  stung  to  the  quick  ; his  spirit  is  roused 
at  these  insinuations,  when  he  knows  how  unjust  they  are. 
He  can  accept  the  current  theology  in  its  generalities  ; he 
does  not  doubt  that  suffering  is  the  fruit  of  sin  ; but  that 
general  principle  does  not  touch  his  own  case.  God  has 
not  smitten  him  for  his  sin.  His  conscience  is  clear.  He 
can  look  into  his  own  heart,  he  can  review  his  life,  and  he 
is  sure  that  neither  in  thought  nor  in  act  has  he  departed 
willingly  from  God.  Never  has  he  been  tempted  by  the 
idolatries  around  him.  True  and  loving  obedience  to  his 
Maker  has  been  the  law  of  his  life.  This,  indeed,  it  is  that 
makes  his  anguish  so  intense.  This  is  the  terrible  dilemma 
in  which  he  is  placed.  The  righteousness  of  God,  that  is 
the  fundamental  article  of  his  creed — that,  nothing  shall 
induce  him  to  forego  ; and  yet  thence  comes  his  greatest 
perplexity.  The  book  is  moistened,  it  has  been  truly  said, 
with  the  bitterest  tears  that  the  human  creature  can  shed 
— the  tears  of  a wounded  conscience.  Job  does  not  main- 
tain his  absolute  freedom  from  sin.  He  admits  the  force 
of  Bildad’s  statement  that  God  will  not  cast  away  the 
perfect  man,  neither  will  He  help  the  evil-doers.  That  is 
Job’s  theology  too.  “ I know  it  is  so  of  a truth,  but  how 
should  man  be  just  with  God  ?”  But  this  does  not  cover 
the  facts.  This  does  not  explain  why  he,  who  had  never 
wilfully  transgressed,  should  be  punished  with  such  ex- 
treme severity.  It  is  of  no  use  to  tell  him  that  he  has  been 
a hypocrite  and  an  evil-doer.  He  indignantly  denies  the 


i6o 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


accusation.  This  is  not  the  explanation  of  his  case.  He 
will  be  true  to  God,  and  to  the  method  of  His  justice  so 
far  as  he  knows  it  ; but  he  must  be  true  to  his  conscience. 
He  will  not  say,  “ I am  guilty,”  when  he  knows  that  he  is 
innocent. 

Who  does  not  feel  the  pathos  of  the  cry  as  he  exclaims, 
“ Thou  knowest  that  I am  not  wicked  ; ” and  as  he  adds, 
trembling  yet  trusting,  as  in  the  grasp  of  one  from  whom 
there  was  no  escape,  “ There  is  none  that  can  deliver  out 
of  Thine  hand  ? ” For  a moment  he  is  tempted,  as  who 
has  not  been  tempted,  to  take  refuge  in  a blind  submission. 

It  is  of  no  use  ; He  will  give  no  account  of  any  of  His 
matters.  I must  take  up  my  burden,  and  trudge  on  along 
the  weary  road  to  the  end  as  well  as  I can.”  But,  in  spite 
of  himself,  his  inmost  heart  cries  out,  ‘‘  God  must  be  right- 
eous,” and  again  and  again  there  bursts  from  his  lips  the 
passionate  desire  that  the  eternal  righteousness  should  be 
vindicated.  He  will  not  be  beaten  from  his  belief  in  that 
righteousness,  though  the  darkness  that  shadows  him  be 
intolerable.  “ Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I trust  in 
Him.  I will  maintain  mine  own  ways  before  Him.”  And 
again:  “Oh  that  I knew  where  I might  find  Him,  that  I 
might  come  even  to  His  seat ! I would  order  my  cause 
before  Him,  and  fill  my  mouth  with  arguments.”  And  so 
to  the  very  last  word  he  utters.  He  reviews  his  life,  he 
describes  in  a strain  of  magnificent  poetry  the  integrity  of 
his  career,  and  the  happiness  he  had  enjoyed,  and,  con- 
trasting it  with  his  present  misery,  he  concludes  with  the 
same  passionate  assertion  of  his  innocence,  the  same  pas- 
sionate appeal  to  God  to  come  out  of  the  darkness  in  which 
He  is  hidden  : “Oh  that  one  would  hear  me  ! Behold,  my 
desire  is  that  the  Almighty  would  answer  me,  and  that 
mine  adversary,” — so  he  boldly  speaks  of  God, — “that  mine 
adversary  would  write  his  accusation  against  me.”  And 
we  know  that  Job  was  right,  still  needing,  no  doubt,  as  we 
all  do,  a deeper  knowledge  of  God,  a deeper  knowledge  of 
himself ; needing  the  lesson,  above  all,  that  his  very  right- 
eousness was  not  his  own  : — but  right  in  maintaining  his 
innocence  against  his  friends  ; right  in  holding  fast  his  in- 
tegrity ; right  in  trusting  God  through  all ; right  in  appeal- 
ing to  Him  to  declare  His  righteousness  where  it  seemed 
to  be  hidden  in  cloud.  God  Himself  bears  witness  to  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


i6i 


sincerity  of  His  servant,  and  condemns  the  specious  but 
hollow  theology  of  his  friends.  In  His  sight,  a frank  and 
loyal  heterodoxy  is  of  more  worth  than  a strict,  but  hard 
and  freezing  orthodoxy,  which  would  make  God  Himself 
the  accomplice  of  its  error.  Job  was  learning  his  theology 
not  from  books,  or  from  the  traditions  of  the  fathers,  but 
in  the  midst  of  God’s  furnace,  and  by  the  teaching  of 
God’s  Spirit;  and,  therefore,  though  it  was  defective,  it 
was  true. 

But  there  is  another  theory  of  suffering,  which  approaches 
much  more  nearly  to  the  truth,  which  is  also  given  us  in  the 
Book  of  Job.  When  Job’s  three  friends  ceased  to  answer 
him,  a fourth  appears,  who  is  indignant  with  Job  for  his 
obstinacy,  and  with  them,  because  they  failed  so  completely 
to  vindicate  the  righteousness  of  God.  Elihu  has  been 
taught,  apparently,  in  a different  school  ; at  any  rate,  he 
has  seen  reason  to  question  the  received  opinions  ; and, 
with  many  apologies  for  his  want  of  experience  and  know- 
ledge, he  boldly  assails  them.  He  is  the  representative  of 
a younger  theology ; and  a younger  theology,  remember, 
is  not  necessarily  worse  than  the  old.  It  is  often  better, 
more  generous,  has  a larger  faith  in  God,  and  a wider  grasp 
of  the  complex  relations  of  the  world.  How  narrow,  how 
poor,  how  unfruitful,  is  the  mere  repetition  of  the  past, 
even  when  it  is  true  ! What  would  the  Church  be  now,  if 
her  children  had  never  ventured  beyond  the  interpretations 
of  ancient  doctors  and  fathers  ? How  meagre,  how  poor 
would  be  her  theology  ? And  if  the  Church  is  true  to  the 
indwelling  spirit  within  her,  if  that  indwelling  is  a reality 
to  be  claimed  and  cherished  by  her  children,  then  she  will 
advance,  not  by  a denial  of  the  old  fact,  for  that  had  its 
use  and  served  its  purpose,  but  by  vindicating  the  genius 
of  the  old  revelation  in  its  ever  new  application  to  the 
emergencies  of  the  time,  and  the  contests  in  which  she 
is  engaged.  She  will  gladly  make  use  of  the  teaching  of 
facts,  and  the  lessons  of  experience,  and  as  well  fulfil  her 
prophecies  in  the  newness  of  the  spirit  and  not  the  oldness 
of  the  letter.  This  was  what  Elihu  did.  His  observation 
of  life  had  been  of  service  to  him.  He  rejects  the  hard  law 
of  retribution.  God’s  purpose  in  chastisement  he  declares 
to  be  the  purification  of  His  servants.  If  He  puts  those 
whom  He  loves  into  the  crucible,  it  is  to  purge  away  their 

M 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


162 


dross,  to  cleanse  them  from  past  sins,  and  to  keep  them 
from  falling  in  the  future.  Here,  certainly,  is  a step  in 
advance.  We  are  standing  on  a loftier  platform.  We  are 
breathing  a purer  atmosphere.  To  see  a purpose  of  love 
in  the  affliction  is  to  turn  it  into  a blessing.  Even  if  the 
conscience  does  not  acknowledge  it  as  merited,  to  be  able 
to  say,  “ It  is  a Fathers  hand  that  chastens,  and  He  is  wiser 
than  I — this  is  surely  to  rob  chastisement  of  its  sting. 
And  you  will  observe  that  Job  accepts  in  silence  this  in- 
terpretation of  his  suffering.  Evidently  it  has  wrought  in 
him  that  submission  which  prepared  him  for  the  words  of 
Jehovah,  when  He  answers  him  out  of  the  whirlwind,  and 
for  the  humble  confession  that  follows : “Behold,  I am  vile, 
what  shall  I answer  Thee  ? I will  lay  mine  hand  upon 
my  mouth  ! 

Let  us  pause  for  a moment  on  this  aspect  of  suffering. 
Do  you  say:  “Why  have  I been  thus  smitten?  Why 
has  sorrow  so  deep  visited  me 't  All  God’s  waves  and 
billows  are  gone  over  me.  All  that  I loved  most  has  been 
taken  from  me.  I have  eaten  ashes  for  bread,  and  mingled 
my  drink  with  weeping  ? ” Do  you  say : “ I have  not  sinned. 
I have  been  obedient  to  God’s  will,  so  far  as  I knew  that 
will } ” But  was  He  supreme  in  your  heart  ? Were  there 
no  idols  usurping  His  place?  Had  you  made  no  gods  to 
go  before  you  ; no  visible  divinities  to  divide  your  heart; 
no  wife  or  children  whom  you  loved  with  a passionate  love, 
for  whose  step  you  listened,  whose  voice  made  you  gladder 
than  all  the  music  of  earth  and  sky,  with  whom  earth  was 
heaven,  without  whom  there  was  no  heaven  for  you  ? And 
God  put  away  your  idol,  and  left  you  in  your  loneliness. 
Why?  Not  surely  that  He  might  wound  and  break  your 
heart,  but  that  He  might  draw  you  to  Himself.  He  came 
to  you  amid  the  ruins  of  your  earthly  happiness,  and  He 
spoke  with  His  penetrating  voice  ; He  put  His  hand  upon 
your  heart  ; He  offered  you  His  divine  consolation.  Then 
you  said,  like  John  the  Baptist,  “ Verily’',  I knew  Him  not;” 
or,  like  Job,  “ I have  heard  of  Thee  by  the  hearing  of  the 
ear  ; but  now  mine  eyes  seeth  Thee.”  You  understood 
His  word  and  His  love  better.  His  words  assumed  a 
deeper  meaning  for  you,  and  now  you  know,  as  you  never 
knew  before,  what  treasures  of  strength  and  peace  He  was 
laying  up  for  you  ; and  you  have  found  the  promise  true 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


163 


as  you  never  found  it  before  : ‘‘  My  peace  I give  unto  you. 
Not  as  the  world  giveth  give  I unto  you.’’ 

And  then  you  are  trained  to  a new  obedience.  Then,  in 
the  language  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  God  is  making 
you  a partaker  of  His  holiness.  He  is  transforming  you 
to  the  image  of  His  Son.  For  what  is  perfect  holiness  but 
perfect  obedience  ; and  where  can  this  obedience  be  so 
fully  learned  as  in  the  hour  of  affliction  ? Is  it  not  then 
that  we  are  compelled  to  confess  that  God’s  ways  are  not 
as  our  ways,  nor  His  thoughts  as  our  thoughts  ? In  the 
presence  of  the  great  sorrow  which  has  come  upon  us  we 
quiver  with  agony  ; our  soul  is  troubled  in  our  Gethsemane. 
We  are  grappling  with  a terrible  principle  of  contradiction. 
We  may  doubt  God’s  love  ; but  if  then  we  are  able  to  say 
from  the  bottom  of  the  heart,  “ Thy  will  be  done,”  we  have 
gained  the  noblest  victory  of  which  man  on  earth  is  capable. 
When  the  day  of  that  painful  obedience  dawned,  though  it 
dawned  on  the  most  terrible  disaster,  it  was  a day  of  in- 
finite grandeur  and  beauty.  You  are  raised  to  the  very 
summit  of  moral  life, — a rugged  thunder- blasted  summit 
like  some  Alpine  peak,  but  one  which  pierces  the  clouds,  on 
which  there  rests  the  light  and  the  sunshine  of  God.  One 
with  Christ,  a sharer  in  His  Gethsemane,  nailed  to  His 
cross,  you  become  partaker  of  His  holiness  ; and  you  con- 
fess that  though. the  chastening  for  the  present  seemeth  not 
to  be  joyous,  but  grievous;  nevertheless,  afterward  ityieldeth 
the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  to  them  that  are  exer- 
cised thereby. 

But  the  mystery  of  evil  is  not  fully  dispelled  even  when 
this  purifying  power  is  assigned  it.  The  author  of  this 
sublime  poem  is  made  the  instrument  of  revealing  to  us 
another  purpose  of  affliction.  He  does  not  altogether  deny 
a portion  of  the  truth  contained  in  the  argument  of  Job’s 
friends.  There  is  a connection  between  sin  and  suffering; 
but  there  are  cases  to  which  neither  of  these  explanations 
will  apply.  There  is  a suffering  to  which  you  cannot  give 
the  epithet  of  retributive  ; there  is  a suffering  which  is  not 
even  for  the  chastisement  or  the  purification  of  the  in- 
dividual soul,  but  for  the  glory  of  God.  If  our  attention 
has  been  fastened  only  on  the  earthward  aspect  of  the 
problem,  we  should  have  missed  this  most  important  lesson ; 
nay,  the  end  of  the  story,  if  we  were  to  read  it  only  by  the 


1 64  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


conclusion  of  the  book,  would  bring  us  back  to  the  old 
theology,  that,  in  the  long  run,  virtue  has  its  reward  here. 
But  if  we  revert  to  the  prologue  of  the  book,  we  learn  a far 
grander  lesson.  A door  is  opened  in  heaven.  The  great 
opposer  of  our  race,  the  adversary  who  watches  our  conduct, 
presents  himself  before  God  in  the  midst  of  the  heavenly 
hierarchy,  and  he  insinuates  that  the  piety  of  Job  is  a selfish 
piety.  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought } ''  It  is  a mere  bar- 
gain, it  is  a mere  calculation.  Honesty  is  the  best  policy ; 
religion  brings  with  it  wealth,  honours,  position,  length  of 
life  ; therefore,  it  is  worth  while  to  be  religious.  Satan 
tells  God  to  His  face  that  His  servants  serve  Him,  not  from 
disinterested  motives,  from  sincere  affection,  but  in  the 
spirit  of  a hireling,  on  the  lowest  and  most  mercenary  con- 
siderations. ‘‘Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought.^  Hast  not 
Thou  made  an  hedge  about  him,  and  about  his  house,  and 
about  all  that  he  hath  on  every  side  } Thou  hast  blessed 
the  work  of  his  hands,  and  his  substance  is  increased  in 
the  land.  But  put  forth  Thine  hand  now,  and  touch  all 
that  he  hath,  and  he  will  curse  Thee  to  Thy  face/’  This  is 
the  challenge  given.  It  is  one  that  strikes  at  the  honour 
of  God  Himself.  It  means  this,  that  He  is  incapable  of 
inspiring  a genuine,  disinterested  affection.  It  means  this, 
that  those  who  worship  Him,  worship  Him,  not  for  what 
He  is,  but  for  what  He  gives  ; not  because  He  is  alto- 
gether lovely,  but  because  in  His  right  hand  is  length  of 
days,  and  in  His  left  hand  riches  and  honour.  And  God 
accepts  the  challenge.  “ Go  forth  and  do  Thy  worst. 
Take  away  all  that  is  dearest  to  him.  Rob  him  of  wealth, 
of  children,  of  happiness.  Make  his  life  bitter  with  sick- 
ness and  sorrow,  and  let  the  issue  be  tried.  Let  it  be  seen 
whether  he  honours  Me  because  he  loves  Me,  or  because  he 
is  prosperous  in  this  world.  Let  it  be  seen  if  his  homage 
is  the  homage  of  the  heart,  or  the  homage  of  a mercenary, 
servile  adulation.”  This  is  the  key  to  the  enigma.  Job 
knew  nothing  of  this.  The  interpretation  was  not  given 
to  him.  Enough  for  him  to  learn  that  he  was  in  the  hand 
of  a wise  and  righteous  and  loving  God.  Enough  for  him 
to  know  that  God  was  teaching  him  the  hard  lesson  of 
obedience.  Enough  for  him  to  come  out  of  the  trial  as 
gold  that  is  purified  in  the  fire.  But  for  us  the  veil  is  lifted. 
We  are  ushered  into  the  inner  sanctuary.  God  reveals  to 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


165 


us  His  counsel.  He  bids  us  see  that  He  may  inflict  suffer- 
ing, not  because  there  are  sins  to  chastise,  not  because  there 
are  faults  to  correct,  or  evil  tendencies  to  extirpate,  but 
because  God  Himself  is  honoured  in  the  trial.  Surely  no 
more  honoured  position  could  be  assigned  to  man  than 
thus  to  be  the  champion  of  God.  Think  of  it,  you  who  are 
called  to  endure  long  hours  of  agony  ; you  to  whom  God 
has  appointed  days  of  pain  and  nights  of  sleepless  suffer- 
ing. Think  of  it,  you  who  cannot  comprehend  His  purpose, 
and  your  fainting  heart  asks,  “ Why  is  this  That  mother, 
who,  for  twenty  years,  has  been  laid  on  a bed  of  pain,  de- 
prived of  the  happiness  of  watching  over  and  training  her 
children  ; that  honest  and  industrious  father,  whose  strength 
is  fading  away  under  the  protracted  and  excruciating  tor- 
ture of  an  incurable  malady,  and  that  at  the  very  time  his 
efforts  are  most  needed  for  the  support  of  his  family  ; that 
upright  merchant,  that  honest  tradesman,  who,  because  he 
would  not  consent  to  some  fraud  or  some  act  of  business 
dishonesty,  sees  himself  and  his  children  exposed  to  the 
shame  of  bankruptcy  and  to  the  privations  of  poverty  : 
these  no  doubt  will  look  into  their  hearts,  they  will  inter- 
rogate their  lives,  they  will  beseech  of  God  to  show  them 
if  there  be  any  way  of  wickedness  in  them  ; but  if,  when 
they  have  done  all,  they  still  find  in  their  affliction  that 
which  they  cannot  fathom,  then  let  them  not  doubt  the 
justice,  or  question  the  love  of  Him  that  chastens.  Can 
you  not  understand  now,  why  it  is  that  some  of  the  purest 
and  saintliest  have  had  the  largest  share  of  suffering  t 
They  are  God’s  elect.  You  marvel  as  you  look  at  that 
pale  face,  which  is  like  the  face  of  an  angel,—  you  marvel 
that  it  blesses  the  Lord:  but  you  see  that  heaven  is  opened 
beyond  ; you  see  the  accuser,  and  God  the  Judge  of  all  ; 
you  see  the  triumph  of  Divine  love  in  man.  Yes,  and  by 
the  light  that  shows  you  the  cross,  you  see  more, — you  see 
One  who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth, 
crushed  beneath  His  weight  of  suffering.  You  see  Him, 
who  was  the  Son  of  the  Father’s  bosom,  learn  obedience 
by  the  things  which  He  suffered,  made  perfect  through 
suffering.  His  trial,  you  know,  was  not  the  trial  of  punish- 
ment, or  of  purification  from  earthly  dross,  but  it  was 
the  glory  of  God,  it  was  the  redemption  of  man.  He 
gathered  into  His  passionate  embrace  all  our  sins,  and 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


1 66 


all  our  sorrows,  that  He  might  take  them  away.  Is  there 
no  strength  there  } Is  it  not  a sublime  thing  to  be  called 
on  to  share  His  suffering?  And  if  an  ungodly  world  still 
says,  ‘'Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought  ? ” stretch  out  Thine 
hand,  and  see  if  Thou  art  worthy  to  inspire  any  heart 
of  man  with  love  ? Will  you  not  answer  the  question  ? 
Will  you  not  be  partakers  with  God,  and  cast  that  grievous 
burden  into  the  arms  of  God,  confessing  that  He  has  ap- 
pointed it  in  love } They  may  mock  at  the  Gospel  and 
its  promises  ; they  may  charge  the  followers  of  Christ  with 
selfish  aims  and  mercenary  motives.  One  saint  who  knows 
that  the  glory  of  God  is  in  his  hands  shall  answer  the 
sneer.  His  noble  submission,  his  unwearied  self-sacrifice, 
his  love  which  takes  upon  it  the  burden  of  the  world,  will 
compel  the  world  to  confess  that  God  is  love,  and  that 
man  loves  Gad  for  Himself. 

J.  J.  S.  P. 


XX.  The  Book  of  Job.— r. 

I HAVE  chosen  the  Book  of  Job  as  the  subject  of  a short 
course  of  lectures,  for  more  than  one  reason.  First,  and 
foremost  of  all,  I would  place  its  intrinsic,  its  marvellous 
interest  and  beauty.  Why  should  I repeat  to  you  what 
this  man  of  genius  or  that  man  of  letters  has  told  us  of  his 
estimate  of  the  book  } Of  this  there  can  be  no  question. 
The  story  which  ushers  in  what  is  after  all  the  main  sub- 
stance of  the  book,  is  one  of  the  most  pathetic  and  tragical 
in  all  literature,  and  it  is  told  with  touch  after  touch  of  a 
simple  and  transparent  eloquence  which  will  never  cease  to 
move  the  hearts  of  men.  The  long  dialogue  which  follows, 
and  which  contains,  as  I have  said,  the  real  problems 
with  which  the  book  deals,  is  often  no  doubt  exceedingly 
obscure.  It  is  difficult  to  read  in  our  present  translation 
many  verses  continuously  without  the  sense  breaking  down, 
so  to  speak,  under  our  feet,  and  leaving  us  in  a path  of 
perplexity.  But  it  contains  for  all  that,  now  isolated 
verses,  now  whole  passages,  which  have  taken  their  place — 
to  say  nothing  more — in  poetry  of  the  highest  order,  among 
the  permanent  and  enduring  possessions  of  the  human 
race.  Whatever  its  difficulties,  whatever  its  obscurities,  no 
intelligent  person  could  read  our  Authorised  Version  of  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


167 


Book  of  Job  without  something  of  a sigh  to  understand  it 
more  fully,  to  master  its  contents  more  correctly. 

And  secondly,  I would  add — and  this  in  no  spirit  of 
undervaluing  of  the  past — that  the  beauty  and  interest  of 
the  book  have  been  greatly  enhanced  by  the  light  of 
modern  studies  of  the  language  in  which  the  original  is 
written.  Every  step  which  has  been  made  towards  a 
clearer  and  more  correct  rendering  of  the  more  difficult 
passages  of  the  book  has  revealed  fresh  beauty.  So  much 
has  been  effected  by  the  aid  of  many  learned  men  who 
have  devoted  themselves  to  clearing  away  the  difficulties 
which  beset  the  reader,  that  the  careful  student  may  feel 
like  one  who  has  entered  a gallery  where  picture  after 
picture,  long  concealed  by  the  accumulated  dust  and  rub- 
bish of  centuries,  has  at  last  been  revealed  in  something  of 
its  original  significance  and  colour.  If  some  time-honoured 
interpretations  have  been  more  than  shaken,  if  one  or  two 
precious  texts  can  no  longer  be  quoted  as  a correct  repre- 
sentation of  the  meaning  of  the  original,  a crowd  of  others 
which  once  were  vague  and  meaningless  have  been  re- 
covered from  obscurity,  and  riches  have  been  disinterred 
that  have  long  lain  buried.  Yet  it  is  obvious  that  it  is  only 
the  most  general  results,  with  such  light  as  recent  in- 
quiries have  thrown  on  the  meaning  of  the  book,  that  I 
should  have  to  bring  before  you  in  this  place.  I shall 
certainly  not  detain  you  by  discussions  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  this  or  that  once  obscure  verse  or  still  perplexing 
phrase. 

And,  thirdly,  it  is  well  that  prevailing  misconceptions  as 
to  the  purport  of  the  book  should  be  discountenanced  and 
corrected,  not  merely  in  small  and  learned  circles,  but  as 
widely  and  publicly  as  possible.  I shall  rejoice  if  I can 
contribute,  however  humbly,  to  open  to  those  who  have 
little  leisure  for  study  and  very  few  opportunities  of  access 
to  the  learned  writers,  the  treasures  which  are  locked  up  in 
one  of  the  most  instructive  but  least  generally  appreciated 
books  of  Holy  Scripture.  Let  me  say  a word  on  this 
point  at  once.  The  general  impression  as  to  the  substance 
is  something — is  it  not  ? — of  this  kind  : that  it  contains 
the  history  of  one  who  was  greatly  tried,  who  showed  under 
his  trials  the  profoundest  resignation  ; resisted,  first  the  evil 
one,  next  the  suggestions  of  his  own  wife,  and,  finally, 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


1 68 


maintained  his  ground  in  some  vague  way  against  his  false 
friends.  The  popular  conception  of  him  is  fairly  repre- 
sented in  a picture  of  a patriarchal  saint,  with  a halo  round 
his  head,  seated  on  his  ash-heap,  putting  to  shame  the 
tempter,  rebuking  his  wife,  bearing  up  against  miserable 
comforters,  and  finally  triumphing  over  all  his  sufferings 
and  all  his  false  advisers.  So  entirely  has  this  view  pre- 
vailed over  all  others,  that  it  has  been  embodied  in  proverbs 
that  are  not  confined  to  our  owrf  language,  and  which  hold 
him  up  as  a typical  instance,  now  of  destitution,  now  of 
patience.  “As  poor  as  Job,’'  “As  patient  as  Job,”  are 
expressions  which  have  gone  round  the  world,  and  with 
which  we  are  all  familiar.  And  yet  nothing  in  the  world 
could  convey  a more  inadequate — I will  not  say  a more 
false — idea  of  the  teaching  of  the  book  than  to  look  on  it 
as  merely  a history  of  patient  submission  to  overwhelming 
calamities.  Its  interest,  its  enduring,  its  main  interest  for 
us  in  modern  days,  lies  in  its  subject  being  almost  precisely 
the  very  opposite  of  this.  I shall  try  and  show  you  that 
it  brings  before  us,  not  merely  Job  the  patient,  but  Job 
the  impatient.  Job  the  perplexed.  Job  the  questioner.  Job 
the  sceptic.  Job  the  audacious,  Job  the  all  but  rebellious  ; 
that  ancient  as  this  book  is — so  far  removed  in  its  sur- 
roundings, in  its  language,  from  our  own  day — yet  it  deals 
with  problems  that  are  as  fresh,  as  undying,  and  as  per- 
plexing here  and  now  in  this  modern  life,  and  in  the 
swarming  streets  of  our  crowded  cities,  as  in  the  days  when 
Roman  civilization  was  in  its  cradle  and  the  literature  of 
Greece  was  in  its  infancy,  and  as  when  they  are  represented 
as  pervading  the  heart  of  the  Arabian  patriarch  beneath 
the  skies  of  Asia. 

Let  me  put  before  you  in  the  very  shortest  and  truest 
form  the  real  contents  of  the  book.  It  begins  with  two 
chapters  written  in  prose.  A man  of  the  highest  piety 
and  the  greatest  wealth  is  suddenly  bereft  of  all  ; he  is  left 
stripped  of  everything  ; plunged  in  bereavement,  poverty, 
and  disease.  He  refuses  to  despair,  bears  all  with  a super- 
natural sweetness  and  resignation.  “ The  Lord  gave,”  he 
says,  “ the  Lord  hath  taken  away.”  This  is  the  prologue, 
and  it  ends  with  the  arrival  of  three  friends,  and  between 
these  and  himself  there  follows  a long  dialogue,  and  this 
dialogue,  remember,  is  no  longer  in  prose  in  the  original, 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


169 


but  in  poetry.  Even  in  the  English  you  may  trace  that 
parallelism,  as  it  is  called,  that  succession  of  couplets,  of 
two  lines,  each  couplet  with  its  rhyme,  not  of  sound  but  of 
sentiment  and  idea,  that  is  so  characteristic  of  Hebrew 
poetry.  Open  any  passage  at  random, — “There  the  wicked 
cease  from  troubling,  and  there  the  weary  be  at  rest.’’  So 
again,  “ There  the  prisoners  rest  together  : the  captives 
hear  not  the  voice  of  the  oppressor.”  And  this  dialogue 
between  Job  and  his  friends  forms  the  bulk  of  the  book — 
is  the  book  itself,  to  which  the  two  chapters  are  an  intro- 
duction or  prologue  in  prose  ; only  we  must  notice  that 
when  the  dialogue  has  been  maintained  through  thirty-six 
chapters,  a fresh  speaker,  or  actor,  as  we  might  say,  is 
introduced — a young  friend,  who  takes  up  the  dialogue 
where  his  elders  have  abandoned  it.  Six  chapters  later 
on,  Jehovah  Himself  appears  on  the  scene;  and  finally, 
when  Job  has  uttered  his  last  words,  the  poem  ends,  and  a 
short  narrative  in  prose  is  added,  in  which  we  are  told  of 
Job’s  justification  by  God — not  for  his  patience,  remem- 
ber, that  of  course  needed  no  justification  at  all ; but  we 
might  say  for,  or  in  spite  of,  his  impatience, — and  of  his  re- 
newed happiness  and  prosperity.  You  will  see,  then,  that 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  understand  the  meaning  of  the 
book  if  we  omit  the  study  of  its  longest  and  most  import- 
ant part — in  fact,  of  the  book  itself — and  only  confine 
ourselves  to  the  short  passage  which  ushers  in  the  real 
poem,  the  initial  verses  of  the  book,  and  those  which  follow 
to  its  completion,  with  a very  short  return,  the  narrative 
which  introduces  it.  It  is  the  poem  itself,  let  me  say  once 
more  even  with  a wearisome  iteration,  not  its  prose  intro- 
duction, nor  its  prose  conclusion,  that  supplies  the  main 
and  the  surpassing  interest  of  the  book.  And  what  is 
the  subject  of  the  poem  itself?  I will  only  indicate  it  at 
present  for  a moment.  It  is  the  very  greatest  problem, 
the  very  sorest  perplexity,  with  which  the  human  soul  can 
vex  itself : “ How  is  it  that  a good  man  can  suffer  unde- 
served affliction,  if  there  is  a good  God  in  Heaven  ? Can 
the  wise  and  righteous  God  leave  evil  in  possession  of  the 
world  “ Impossible,”  say  Job’s  friends.  “ You,  sufferer, 
must  have  sinned  ; confess  your  sin  and  ask  for  forgive- 
ness, and  all  will  be  well.”  But  Job  cannot  say  this  ; he 
protests  his  innocence.  Remember  the  description  of  him 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


170 


in  the  prologue,  as  a man  who  feared  God  greatly,  and 
eschewed  evil,  and  so  again  and  again  he  breaks  out  into 
audacious  questionings  of  the  whole  government  of  the 
world,  and  into  passionate  pleadings  with  God  as  his 
persecutor.  And  while  his  friends  plead,  or  seem  to  plead, 
for  God,  he  pleads,  or  seems  to  plead,  against  Him,  and 
after  all  God  pronounced  for  him  and  against  them.  The 
poem,  then,  is  one  of  the  most  moving,  one  of  the  most 
sacred  and  Divine,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  human 
of  all  poems.  It  deals,  as  I hav^e  already  said,  with 
one  of  the  most  appalling  of  human  problems.  It  is 
a meditation,  so  to  speak,  in  the  form  of  a dialogue,  or 
a world  of  questioning  about  injustice  and  miseries. 
And  Job  represents  not  the  calm  and  contented  sayer 
of  smooth  things,  but  the  bold  questioner,  in  the  agony 
of  indignation  of  one  who  feels  that  the  whole  world 
is  out  of  joint.  Is  it  not  to  some  of  us  a new  thing  to  be 
told  that  such  questionings  cannot  find  a place,  I might 
almost  say  an  honoured  place,  between  the  covers  of  the 
Bible  } Yet  so  it  is,  as  we  shall  see  further  on  ; and  the 
discovery  may  open  the  eyes  of  some  of  us  to  the  treasures 
yet  to  be  found  in  that  ancient  book,  that  unexhausted 
mine  of  teaching  and  wisdom. 

I think  a few  words  more  on  the  general  position  of  the 
book  may  possibly  interest  you.  It  belongs  neither  to  the 
historical  nor  to  the  prophetical  books  of  the  Bible.  The 
mere  arrangement  of  our  own  Bibles  will  show  you  this. 
It  stands  side  by  side  with  the  Psalms,  the  Proverbs,  the 
Canticles,  and  Ecclesiastes  ; and  between  these  two  great 
divisions,  like  the  four  books  I have  named.  It  belongs  to 
what  we  call  the  poetical  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
yet  its  poetry  is  not  a series  of  detached  hymns,  the  very 
highest  teachings  and  uplifting  of  the  human  soul  towards 
God,  like  the  Book  of  Psalms  ; nor  is  it  the  common  sense 
of  the  many  embodied  into  maxims  by  the  wisdom  of  the 
one,  like  so  much  of  the  Proverbs  ; nor  meditations,  often 
sweet  meditations,  on  life,  like  the  Ecclesiastes  ; nor  poetry, 
half  mystic,  half  Idyllic,  like  the  Songs  of  Solomon  ; it 
stands  apart  by  itself,  this  great  book  of  the  Bible — apart, 
we  might  almost  say,  in  the  literature  of  the  whole  world. 
If  it  resembles  the  Book  of  Proverbs  or  Ecclesiastes  as 
dealing  with  the  great  practical  and  speculative  questions 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


171 


of  human  life,  it  differs  from  them  both  as  gathering  all  its 
teaching  round  a single  person  who  forms  the  centre  of  a 
group  of  speakers;  and  whatever  the  lessons  it  details,  or 
the  problems  it  raises,  they  come  to  us,  never  through  the 
lips  of  the  author  of  the  book  himself,  but  always  of  the 
individuals  who,  one  after  another,  come  forward  on  the 
stage  to  utter  them.  The  author  himself  speaks  only  to 
introduce  to  us,  if  I may  say  so,  the  dramatis  personcBy  for 
so  they  are. 

Yet  drama  we  can  hardly  call  it.  For  within  the  poem 
itself  there  is  no  action,  no  event,  no  movement.  The 
action  is  not  action  in  the  common  sense  of  the  word  ; it 
is  only  the  torture  and  the  writhing  and  the  agony,  the 
movement,  the  swerving  to  and  fro,  and  the  doubts  and 
the  falling  off,  and  the  questionings,  and  the  faith,  between 
a single  soul  and  the  catastrophe  of  the  coming  face  to 
face  of  that  soul  with  its  God.  Nor  is  it  a philosophical 
or  didactic  dialogue,  advancing  steadily  towards  a clear 
conclusion.  The  problem  it  deals  with  is  too  dark  and 
complex,  too  high  for  this  ; and  the  teaching  too  varied, 
too  conflicting,  too  merely  suggestive.  The  solution,  so 
far  as  solution  is  given,  is  left  for  the  reader  to  draw  for 
himself, — often  remember,  as  is  the  case  with  so  many  of 
the  great  Teacher’s  parables, — it  is  left  in  the  reader’s  hands 
to  deal  with  as  he  can  ; and  it  is,  or  seems,  strange  how 
long  and  how  constantly  its  true  purport  has  been  over- 
looked. Turn  to  many  of  the  commentaries  on  the  book, 
and  you  will  find  various  views  taken  of  him  whose  name 
it  bears.  Sometimes  he  is,  as  I said  before,  a model  of 
submission,  of  resignation,  which  forms  the  popular  esti- 
mate of  his  character,  and  all  else  that  is  characteristic  of 
nine-tenths  of  his  language  is  put  into  the  background,  or 
explained  away.  Sometimes  he  is  represented  as  a merely 
mystical  teacher  of  Christian  truths — of  truths  not  yet 
revealed  to  the  w^orld  ; sometimes  he  is  looked  on  merely 
as  the  inspired  and  unconscious  utterer  of  what  to  his 
hearers  must  have  been  quite  untelligible  predictions;  as  a 
mere  preacher  before  his  time,  of  Jesus  and  the  resurrec- 
tion. Successive  schools  of  thought  have  written  them- 
selves into  his  thoughts,  and  those  of  his  interlocutors.  It 
seems  a bold  assertion,  yet  it  is,  I venture  to  suggest,  not 
quite  unwarranted,  to  say  that  partly  owing  to  the  more 


172  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


profound  study  of  the  language  in  which  he  speaks,  and  of 
cognate  languages,  partly  from  a certain  marked  tendency 
in  modern  commentators,  it  has  been  reserved  for  the 
present  generation  to  read  the  book  in  something,  at  all 
events,  more  nearly  the  sense  of  him  to  whom  it  was  given 
to  produce  it  ; — that  modern  study  often  presumptuous, 
often  decried,  often  frowned  upon,  has  been  rewarded  by 
bringing  to  light  a fresh  and  almost  untouched  vein  of 
thought  in  those  unexhausted,  those  inexhaustible  treasures 
of  the  Scriptures. 

One  word  more  may  add  to  the  interest  which  some  here 
may  possibly  bring  to  the  fresh  perusal  of  so  little  studied 
a portion  of  Scripture.  In  what  age,  we  may  naturally 
ask,  and  in  what  country  was  the  book  written  ? Who  was 
its  author  ? I need  hardly  say  that  on  such  questions  we 
have  no  authoritative  guide  of  any  kind.  The  dictum 
of  this  or  that  Jewish  Rabbi,  this  or  that  Father  of  the 
Christian  Church,  may  be  received  with  due  respect,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  find  any  sure  ground  in  the  vague  tradi- 
tions or  later  theories  that  came  into  being  centuries  after 
the  book  had  been — we  know  not  exactly  when — placed 
in  the  roll  of  the  Hebrew  canonical  books.  We  must  look 
for  any  answer  in  the  book  itself — not  outside  the  book, 
the  reader  who  has  with  moderate  attention  gone  through 
those  forty-two  chapters,  may  be  inclined  to  ask,  “ How 
came  this  book  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  at  all  ? ''  There 
is  nothing,  we  may  say,  saving  that  it  is  written  in  Hebrew, 
and  in  confessedly  difficult  Hebrew,  that  points  to  the 
Hebrew  nation,  or  to  the  land  in  which  that  nation  dwelt,  or 
to  its  history,  or  traditions,  or  institutions,  or  ceremonies,  or 
mode  of  life,  or  ideas,  or  law.  Where  is  Moses  or  the  law 
of  Moses  here  ? Where  is  there  any  mention  of  the  land  of 
promise  or  of  the  heroes  who  won  that  land,  or  of  the  kings 
who  ruled  it,  or  of  the  patriarchs  to  whom  it  was  promised  } 
Where  is  the  yearning  love  for  Jerusalem  or  for  the  Temple, 
that  burns  now  so  fiercely,  now  so  tenderly,  through  so  many 
Psalms?  The  author  of  the  book  passes  by  all  these 
things  and  persons  in  entire  and  absolute  silence.  Pales- 
tine and  its  great  history  ; Jacob  and  his  twelve  children  ; 
Moses  and  his  law,  might  never  have  existed  so  far  as  an 
allusion  can  be  detected  to  them  from  the  first  chapter  to 
the  forty-second.  Instead  of  these  persons,  and  events, 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


173 


and  places,  we  have  a background  very  different,  as  we 
may  see  in  any  further  study  of  the  book.  The  great 
plains  of  Asia,  traversed  by  the  slow  caravans,  swept  over 
from  time  to  time  by  marauding  tribes  like  those  plun- 
dering, and,  as  we  know,  too  often  murderous  Bedouins  of 
modern  days,  yet  inhabited  by  nations  with  a civilization 
and  government  of  their  own,  and  families  with  the  ideas 
that  belong  to  people  among  whom  the  administration  of 
justice  and  the  value  of  free  deliberation  and  a sense  of 
the  value  of  human  rights  and  liberties  have  made  some 
way — these  form  the  scene  of  the  drama,  if  drama  we 
may  call  it.  And  above  it  were  those  lucid  skies  which 
bent  over  those  Asiatic  plains,  skies  from  which  the  stars 
glittered  with  a brilliancy  unknown  in  these  Northern 
climes,  the  land  in  which  astronomy  and  astrology  alike 
had  their  birth.  And  those  who  tread  the  stage  speak  not 
only  of  the  poetry  and  legends  of  those  heavenly  bodies, 
but  of  the  ancient  and  marvellous  land  of  Egypt  once  the 
centre  of  the  civilization  of  the  world.  They  are  familiar 
with  palm  trees,  bulrushes,  with  the  hippopotamus  and  the 
crocodile  ; they  are  familiar  with  smelting  of  metals,  the 
driving  of  mines  through  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  with  the 
pilgrim  stories  of  far-off  lands,  with  the  war  horse  of  the 
desert,  and  with  the  animal  creation.  How  or  when  could 
an  inhabitant  of  Palestine,  a child  of  the  covenant,  who 
looked  with  scorn  on  the  uncircumcised,  uncovenanted  world 
— how,  we  might  say,  independently  of  the  Jewish  character 
of  his  world,  could  he  have  written  a book  steeped  in  a 
Gentile  atmosphere  with  every  allusion  to  the  land  of  his 
forefathers  studiously,  it  would  seem,  excluded  ? The 
question  is  a very  interesting  one.  Many  of  the  ancient 
writers  cut  the  knot  at  once.  Job,  they  said,  taking  him 
for  granted  as  the  author  of  the  book,  lived  before  the 
days  of  Moses,  and  the  book  wa?  written  some  even  say 
by  Moses  himself  before  the  revelation  of  the  law  from 
Sinai,  so  that  it  is  the  oldest  book  in  the  Bible,  perhaps 
in  the  world,  and  has  come  down  to  us  from  a dim,  prehis- 
toric, immemorial  antiquity.  It  is,  I need  not  say,  a very 
attractive  and  interesting  theory.  It  is  almost  with  reluct- 
ance that  we  listen  to  arguments  which  seem  fatal  to  ascrib- 
ing to  the  book  so  vastly  remote  a date.  The  language, 
we  are  told,  the  grammar,  the  vocabulary,  above  all  the 


174  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


style  of  the  original,  are  fatal  to  the  supposition.  Such  an 
evidence,  if  it  rests  on  sufficient  grounds  ; is  almost  unan- 
swerable. If  the  analogy  holds  good,  we  could  not  for  a 
moment  suppose  that  Milton  could  have  written  before  the 
age  of  Chaucer  ; but  besides  this  we  must  remember,  ac- 
count for  it  how  we  may,  that  the  same  absence  of  peculiar 
Jewish  allusions  and  ideas  may  be  found  elsewhere  in  the 
Old  Testament.  Many  of  the  Psalms,  almost  the  whole  of 
the  Book  of  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes,  bear  no  trace  of 
Hebrew  scenery,  or  of  allusions  to  Palestine,  and,  finally, 
and  what  will  interest  us  all  perhaps  far  more,  the  great 
problem  of  the  book,  the  great  riddle  that  vexes  Job,  is  not 
one  that  springs  into  life  with  the  earlier  stage  of  human 
progress.  Those  awful  questionings  as  to  the  mysteries  of 
life,  its  strange  inequalities  and  seeming  injustices,  they 
are  the  offspring  of  a more  confused  and  tangled  social 
web  than  that  of  the  primaeval  and  simple  life  of  a 
patriarchal  family.  They  would  have  found  no  voice, 
no  echo,  in  the  times  of  Isaac,  Abraham,  Jethro,  or  of 
Jacob,  and  God’s  Spirit  does  not  transport  men  out  of 
their  own  epoch.  Great  and  lofty  as  are  the  utterances 
of  the  book,  they  would  have  been  wholly  unnatural  and 
inconceivable  till  the  problems  with  which  they  deal  had 
been  brought  home  to  the  hearts  of  men  by  a series  of 
unexplained  sufferings,  much  meditation,  long  and  painful 
questionings.  We  may,  therefore,  accept  what  we  may 
call  now  the  generally  received  view,  that  the  author  of 
the  book  lived  late  enough  to  have  seen  woe  after  woe 
fall  upon  God’s  people ; to  have  pondered  over  those 
sufferings,  as  falling  not  on  the  most  evil,  as  national 
chastisements  for  national  sins,  but  as  miseries,  unde- 
served miseries,  of  good  and  God-fearing  men,  and  that 
he  found  no  sufficient  answer  to  the  doubts  that  stirred 
within  his  breast  as  to  tlTe  simple  faiths  of  his  forefathers, 
which  only  tell  him  that  the  righteous  were  always  pros- 
perous and  the  wicked  always  afflicted.  He  had  travelled, 
it  may  be,  far,  and  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes,  or  heard 
from  the  lips  of  others,  much  of  the  great  world  into 
which  adventurous  Jews  were  steadily  pushing  their  way; 
and  when  at  last  God’s  Spirit  stirred  him  to  his  great 
task,  he  was  guided  to  lay  the  scene  of  the  marvellous 
poem  in  which  his  meditations  were  to  be  embodied,  in 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


175 


a scene  far  from  the  narrowing  associations  of  his  own 
race,  and  to 

“ Rise  to  the  heig^ht  of  his  great  argument,” 

above  the  limits  of  the  law  of  Moses  to  the  serener  heights, 
from  which  his  words  might  go  forth  and  be  judged  on 
their  own  merits,  divested  as  far  as  possible  from  any  direct 
connection  with  the  traditions  or  tenets  of  his  own  country- 
men ; and  if  this  be  true,  we  have  in  him  one  who,  almost 
more  than  any  other  Old  Testament  speaker,  was  able  to 
breathe  air  in  which  the  Saviour,  and  he  who  walked  so 
closely  in  his  Saviour’s  steps,  lived,  worked,  and  died, — to 
grasp  the  truth  that  the  Jehovah  he  speaks  of  in  his  poem, 
and  whose  Spirit  spoke  to  his  own  heart,  was  a God,  not  as 
many  of  his  countrymen  believed  before,  and  with  him, 
of  a single  nation,  but  the  God  and  Father  of  the  whole 
human  family.  And  whatever  its  exact  date,  whether  he 
lived,  as  may  well  have  been  the  case,  at  the  fall  of 
Samaria  and  the  crash  of  the  northern  kingdom,  and  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity, or  was  removed  from  this  time  by  a few  genera- 
tions, we  may  hail  him  as  in  this  sense,  though  in  this 
sense  only,  as  one  who  ‘‘  died  in  faith,  not  having  re- 
ceived the  promises,  but  having  seen  them  afar  off,  and 
been  persuaded  of  them,  and  embraced  them  ” ; and  thus 
going  in  his  measure  before  his  Lord  to  prepare  His  way 
before  Him. 

G.  G.  B. 


XXI.  The  Book  of  Job.— 2. 

I PURPOSE  to  bring  before  you  that  which  I have  already 
spoken  of  as  the  introduction  in  prose,  the  prologue  so 
to  speak,  to  the  poem  ; — in  a limited  sense,  I have  already 
explained,  we  may  venture  to  call  it,  the  dramatic  poem 
of  the  Book  of  Job.  It  is,  remember,  only  an  introduction  ; 
yet  for  all  that,  it  is  a thoroughly  integral  and  essential 
feature  of  the  book,  which  could  not  possibly  be  dispensed 
with.  It  gives  not  merely  tone*  and  colour  and  emphasis, 
but  its  whole  meaning  and  significance  to  all  that  follows. 
Yet  our  work  to-day  is  simple.  The  greatest  and  darkest 
problems  of  the  book  will  not  meet  us.  Yet  I have  no  fear 


176  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


of  any  lack  of  interest  at  any  step.  The  opening  words  of 
the  first  chapter  are  the  key  to  much  that  follows  : “ There 
was  a man  in  the  land  of  Uz,  whose  name  was  Job  ; and 
that  man  was  perfect  and  upright,  and  one  that  feared  God 
and  eschewed  evil.”  The  scene  is  the  land  of  Uz.  I will 
not  detain  you  for  one  moment  with  a description  of  its 
precise  locality.  It  is  important,  however,  to  remind  you 
that  it  is  far  beyond  the  confines  of  the  Holy  Land,  and 
if  much  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  much  of  Ecclesiastes, 
many  of  the  Psalms,  are  so  far  unlike  the  rest  of  the 
Bible  that  they  have  no  local  colouring  at  all,  are  not 
redolent  with  the  air  of  Palestine,  this  book,  with  all — 
every  word — that  is  contained  in  it,  is  so  distinctly  re- 
moved from  the  confines  of  that  land,  that  its  atmosphere 
is  not  merely  non- Jewish  but  distinctly  and  positively 
something  other  than  Jewish, — truly  Gentile.  It  is  the 
only  book  of  the  Old  Testament  which,  not  indirectly  but 
directly,  from  the  very  first  word  to  the  very  last,  anticipates 
the  words  of  St.  Peter,  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons  ; 
but  that  in  every  nation,  he  that  feareth  Him  and  worketh 
righteousness  is  accepted  of  Him.  The  history,  so  far  as 
it  is  a history,  is  that  of  a Gentile  patriarch.  Here,  then, 
in  this  Gentile  land  dwelt  Job,  who  is  fearlessly  described 
as  “ perfect  and  upright ; ” though  the  word  perfect  means 
rather  whole-hearted,  sound,  sincere,  than  technically  or 
theologically  without  sin,  and  words  are  added  to  show 
that  this  was  no  skin-deep  or  pharisaical  uprightness — 
“ one  that  feared  God  and  eschewed  evil.”  This,  remember, 
this  high  and  blameless  character  of  Job  before  God  and 
before  man  is  a necessary  element  in  the  tragedy  that  is  to 
come. 

His  goodness,  then,  is  the  first  element  in  the  story,  and 
the  second  is  his  well-doing.  He  was  rich  in  all  the  wealth 
of  that  early  world.  First  he  is  rich  in  sons  and  daughters 
— above  all,  we  remember,  in  that  far-off  world  of  the  East, 
in  the  former, — seven  sons  and  three  daughters.  He  is 
rich  also  in  the  possessions  that  mark  the  stage — the 
transitional  stage — of  civilization  in  which  this  great  parable 
is  placed  ; — a mingling  of  •some  traces  of  the  nomadic  life 
with  the  pastoral  on  the  one  hand,  and  settled  and  agri- 
cultural, and  even  city  life,  on  the  other — in  thousands  of 
sheep,  in  camels,  in  oxen,  and  in  as.ses.  Rich  also  in  slaves  ; 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


177 


in  a very  great  household  and  retinue,  of  his  treatment  and 
bearing  towards  whom  he  himself  speaks  later  on.  “ If  I 
despise  the  cause  of  my  bondsmen,  what  shall  I do  when 
God  riseth  up,  and  when  He  visiteth,  what  shall  I answer 
Him  ? Did  not  He  that  made  me  make  him  } and  did  not 
one  God  fashion  us  both  in  the  womb?  He  speaks  as  no 
Greek  or  Roman  could  ; I might  almost  say,  as  no  slave- 
master  has  ever  spoken.  He  is  one  that  respecteth  his 
brother  man  : who,  in  the  Apostle’s  words,  honoured  all 
men.”  And  his  position  is  summed  up  in  the  third  verse 
as  that  of  the  very  greatest  sons  of  the  East,  a term  often 
applied  to  the  Arab  races  ; kindred  to,  but  not  of  the  same 
family  as  the  sons  of  Jacob,  and  who  lived  between  the 
Nile  and  the  Euphrates.  And  the  story  goes  on  to  tell  us 
of  the  mutual  festivities  and  gatherings  of  his  children. 
This  touch  brings  out,  and  it  is  meant  to  bring  out,  the 
picture  of  affluence  and  prosperity  ; it  is  not  merely  this, 
for  the  next  touch  is  one  other  of  the  two  marked  features 
of  Job’s  early  career  : — his  affluence,  his  blamelessness, — his 
more  than  blamelessness, — his  active  affection  and  piety. 
As  he  thinks  of  his  feasting  children  he  would  commend 
them  to  God. 

There  is  some  obscurity  in  the  translation,  but  there  is 
nothing  to  mar  the  picture  of  fatherly  love.  Probably  he 
sends  for  his  children,  and  bids  them  join  him  in  some  acts 
of  ceremonial  performed  at  his  home.  Certainly  he  rises 
early,  when  the  feast  is  done,  and  stands  by  the  altar  side. 
You  see  at  once  how  far  we  have  travelled  from  the  Levi- 
tical  or  Aaronic  priesthood.  And  this  Gentile  and  layman 
(to  use  modern  language)  offers  to  God  his  sacrifice  for 
each  child  in  turn,  interceding,  in  the  simple  faith  of  his 
day  and  region,  for  any  chance  or  secret  utterance  of  sin  or 
folly.  He  sums  up  all  in  the  words,  “ It  may  be  that  they 
have  cursed  God  in  their  hearts,  and  sinned.”  The  form  of 
worship  may  be  the  form  of  the  religion  of  the  land  of  Uz. 
But  who  does  not  see  beneath  it,  the  Christian  parent 
pleading  with  the  same  God  for  the  unguarded  hours  of 
unwatchful  and  thoughtless  youth  ? 

But  now  the  scene  shifts  at  once  from  the  land  of  Uz, 
and  we  are  carried  upwards,  as  in  a vision,  to  the  halls  of 
heaven  ; and  there  Jehovah  holds  His  court  like  an  Oriental 
sovereign,  and  His  sons — His  creatures  of  other  than 

N 


178  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


human  mould  come  before  Him  ; and  among  them  is 
one  malignant  spirit,  called  Satan,  or  the  accuser,  the 
denouncer.  He  represents  himself  as  fresh  from  travelling 
to  and  fro  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  spying  out  evil 
therein.  And  Jehovah  calls  his  attention  to  His  own 
servant  Job,  and  bears  His  testimony,  a more  than  human 
testimony,  to  his  goodness,  repeating  the  very  words  in 
which  the  author  had  introduced  him — ‘‘There  is  none  like 
him  on  the  earth,  perfect  and  upright,  one  that  feareth  God 
and  escheweth  evil.’’  But  the  evil  spirit  hath  his  answer 
ready  : “ Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought  ? ” He  represents 
at  once  that  only  too  common  view  in  the  world,  that  there 
is  no  such  a thing  as  disinterested  goodness.  Such  a 
question  as  the  spirit  asked  is  not  confined,  be  sure,  to  such 
evil  spirits,  or  to  the  story  of  the  man  of  Uz.  It  was  one 
of  the  questions  which  had  already  been  raised  when  this 
book  was  written,  we  know  not  when.  It  is  one  of  the 
questions  with  which  this  book  is  meant  to  deal.  You 
have  heard  it  raised,  you  may  hear  it  raised  again,  in  the 
chance  conversation  in  which  you  join  with  a fellow-traveller. 
There  is  no  such  thing,  it  is  said,  as  the  love  of  goodness  for 
its  own  sake  ; there  is  always  some  ulterior,  some  selfish 
motive.  Or  even  religion,  you  will  be  told,  is  merely  a matter 
of  self-interest ; it  means  nothing  more  than  this,  even  if  it  is 
sincere  ; it  means  nothing  more  than  a desire  to  escape  pain, 
and  to  enjoy  happiness  hereafter.  “Doth  Job  serve  God 
for  nought  ? ” Can  men  or  women  care  for  goodness  and 
righteousness  and  truth  for  their  own  sakes  ? Can  they 
feel,  can  God,  can  Christ  inspire,  a disinterested  love  ? 
Happy  those  who  can  answer  such  a question,  from  some- 
thing of  the  experience  of  their  own  hearts,  or  from  the 
lives  of  those  whom  they  have  known  through  and 
through. 

But  the  Evil  One  proceeds  to  describe  God’s  favour  to 
Job.  “ Thou  hast  made  an  hedge  about  him,”  he  says,  “ to 
shield  him  from  all  trial.”  “ How  easy,”  says  the  modern 
satirist,  “ to  be  good  on  an  abundant  income.  Let  a man 
live  in  a crowded  lodging-house,  let  him  know  not  where 
to-morrow’s  bread  is  to  come,  where  will  his  goodness  be  ? ” 
“ Thou  hast  blessed  the  work  of  his  hands,  and  his  substance 
is  increased  in  the  land.”  No  doubt,  therefore,  he  is  perfect 
and  upright ; “ but  put  forth  Thy  hand  and  touch  all  that 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


179 


he  hath,  and  he  will  curse  Thee  to  Thy  face/’  The  chal- 
lenge is  accepted  by  the  good  man’s  friend,  and  power  is 
given  to  Satan  (who  is  represented  here,  you  will  observe, 
not  at  all  as  the  tempter  to  or  suggester  of  evil  to  the 
human  heart,  but,  as  more  than  once  in  the  New  Testament, 
as  a being  whose  power  to  inflict  pain  is  derived  from  One 
who  is  his  master),  to  torment  upright  and  perfect  Job 
with  the  loss  of  that  on  the  possession  of  which,  the 
accuser  says,  his  seeming  goodness  is  ba^ed  : power,  not  in 
the  first  place  over  Job  himself,  but  over  all  that  belongs 
to  him. 

And  once  more  we  are  upon  the  earth,  in  the  land  of  Uz, 
on  a festal  day,  with  the  children  of  happy  Job.  Blow  falls 
after  blow : the  message  comes  that  a wild  tribe  has  burst 
into  the  cultivated  land,  and  carried  away  all  his  oxen  and 
his  asses  and  slain  his  labourers.  “ I only,”  says  the  bringer 
of  evil  tidings,  ‘‘am  escaped  to  tell  thee.”  And  another 
tells  of  the  destruction  of  his  grazing  flocks  and  shepherds 
by  the  terrific  lightning.  The  fire  of  God  has  fallen  on 
them  from  heaven.  And  even  as  he  was  yet  speaking 
another  comes  to  say  that  the  still  wilder  tribe,  the  Chaldeans, 
the  Kurds  of  to-day,  had  made  a foray  from  the  highlands, 
and,  divided  like  skilled  marauders  into  three  bands,  had 
swept  away  his  wealth  of  camels,  and  slain  their  guardians, 
and  all  his  wealth  is  gone  from  him  at  once  ; — three  kinds 
of  wealth,  representing  as  it  were  three  stages  in  the  growth 
of  early  human  progress ; and  sorrows  come  not  singly, 
but  in  full  battalions.  They  come  on  even  as  he  is  listening 
to  these  terrible  tidings  ; worse,  far  worse  follows. 

The  scorching  wind  that  sweeps  over  the  desert  plains 
of  Asia  has  buried  his  children,  one  and  all,  in  the  ruins  of 
their  eldest  brother’s  house.  All  are  dead  ; the  messenger 
alone  survives  ; and  the  man  of  wealth  is  stripped  of  all 
his  riches,  and  the  happy  father  is  left  bereaved  and  child- 
less. It  is  like  the  close  of  some  dark,  brief  tragedy, 
coming  in  its  opening  scene.  And  Job  arose,  we  are  told. 
The  news  tore  his  heart.  There  was  no  need  to  tell  him, 
like  the  bereaved  father  in  Macbeth,  to  give  his  sorrow 
words.  He  made  no  attempt  to  smile  impassively,  or  to 
bear  it  like  a stoic.  He  rent  his  clothes  and  shaved  his 
head,  like  a true  son  of  the  East,  in  overwhelming  grief. 
But  this  was  not  all.  His  past  life  bore  its  fruits.  Accu- 


i8o 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


mulated  years  of  service  to  God  stood  him  in  good  stead, 
as  they  have  stood  others.  In  this  sudden  tempest  of 
bereavement,  he  resigned  himself  to  the  hand  that  afflicted 
him  : in  the  memorable  words  that  rise  at  once  from  prose 
to  poetry,  and  in  which  the  Church  tries  to  guide  the 
hearts  of  sorrowing  mourners,  “Naked  came  I from  my 
mother’s  womb,  naked  shall  I return  to  mother  earth : the 
Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away ; blessed  be  the 
name  of  the  Lord.” 

The  Evil  One,  then,  was  foiled,  and  Job’s  innocence  and 
sincerity  were  vindicated  even  at  this  terrible  price.  But 
the  story  does  not  end  here.  The  trial  is  to  be  renewed 
after  an  interval,  how  long,  how  short,  we  know  not.  Once 
more  we  have  a vision  of  the  courts  of  heaven,  and  once 
more  we  see  the  sons  of  God  presenting  themselves  before 
Jehovah,  and,  as  before,  with  the  repetition  of  the  same 
words,  that  remind  us  for  an  instant  of  the  simplicity  of 
Homer,  Satan  is  questioned  whence  he  comes,  gives  his 
answer,  is  told  to  turn  his  eyes  to  the  blamelessness  of 
God’s  servant,  who  still,  in  spite  of  all  his  causeless  woe, 
holdeth  fast  his  integrity.  And  Satan’s  answer  is  in  the 
same  spirit  as  before  : “ Skin  for  skin,”  he  says.  The  phrase 
is  not  easily  explained.  Possibly  it  has  some  such  meaning 
as,  anything  in  the  way  of  a bargain  man  will  submit  to  : 
all  that  he  hath  will  he  give  away  cheerfully  to  redeem  his 
life.  But  he  challenges  Him  that,  as  He  has  allowed  all 
these  successive  waves  of  woe  to  fall  upon  His  own  servant’s 
head,  to  go  one  step  farther.  “ Do  what  Thou  hast  not  yet 
done ; touch,”  he  says,  “ his  own  person,  his  bone  and  his 
flesh,  and  he  will  curse  Thee  to  Thy  face.”  And  once 
more  the  challenge  is  accepted,  and  the  fiat  goes  forth  : 
“ Behold,  he  is  in  thy  hand  ; but  save  his  life.” 

And  we  are  brought  back  once  more  to  Job  : from  the 
sole  of  his  foot  to  the  crown  of  his  head,  he  is  attacked  with 
the  direst  form  of  the  sorest  of  Eastern  diseases,  the  terrible 
leprosy.  Into  all  that  is  told  of  its  horrors  by  Eastern 
travellers,  dreadful  stories  of  horrors  which  you  may  look 
for  in  vain  in  the  wards  of  a London  hospital,  I will  not 
enter.  He  cowers  among  the  ashes,  loathsome  alike  to 
others  and  to  himself.  His  cup  seems  full.  One  further 
turn  of  the  rack,  so  to  speak,  is  yet  possible  : it  is  not 
spared  him.  From  the  one  human  quarter  from  whence 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


i8i 


comfort  might  have  come,  comes  only  a suggestion  of  des- 
pair. “ Dost  thou  still,”  said  his  wife,  who  comes  across 
the  scene  only  to  heighten  for  one  moment  the  tragical 
impression  of  her  husband’s  wretchedness,  ‘‘  dost  thou 
still  retain  thine  integrity.^”  (that  is,  thy  blamelessness). 
“ Curse  God,”  she  says,  ‘‘  and  die.”  ‘‘  Renounce  this  God 
who  thus  leaves  thee  to  such  a fate,  and  quit  life,  life 
that  has  nothing  left  to  live  for.”  It  seems  hard  indeed, 
hard  above  all  to  those  who  have  known  Christian  or 
English  homes,  that  such  a suggestion  should  have  come 
from  such  a quarter.  It  pains  us  with  an  unwelcome  shock. 
Let  me  remind  you  that  when  the  poet-painter  drew,  nearly 
sixty  years  ago,  some  wonderfully  powerful  illustrations  to 
the  Book  of  Job,  the  English  husband  of  the  most  loyal 
and  affectionate  of  wives  refused  to  follow  the  detail  of  the 
narrative  in  this  terrible  feature.  All  the  rest  could  be 
pourtrayed  step  by  step ; but  here  his  love  for  his  own  wife 
stayed  the  painter’s  hand,  and  those  who  have  ever  seen 
his  drawings  will  see  Job’s  wife  kneeling  beside  her  hus- 
band, sharing  his  misery  with  him  through  all  his  trials 
that  are  yet  to  come,  and  restored  with  him  to  happiness 
at  the  end.  There  was  something  in  the  roll  of  Job’s 
suffering  too  remote,  may  we  not  thankfully  say,  from  the 
accumulated  experience  of  English  and  Christian  married 
life,  something  too  keen  for  the  poet  and  the  artist,  often 
on  the  borderland  where  genius  runs  into  madness,  to  bear 
to  reproduce.  It  well  might  be  so.  The  depth  of  human 
agony  seemed  sounded.  How  many  might,  in  more  senses 
than  one,  have  cursed  God  and  died  ? A Roman  might 
have  turned  upon  those  unjust  gods,  and  died  by  his  own 
hand  with  defiance  on  his  lips ; left  the  world  in  which  he 
felt  he  was  nobler  than  they.  Vicirix  causa  Diis  placuit^ 
sed  victa  Catoni,  Others  might  have  sought  refuge  in  dull 
despair:  not  so  Job.  “ What,”  he  says, ‘‘ shall  we  receive 
good  at  the  hands  of  God,  and  shall  we  not  receive  evil } ” 
“ In  all  this,”  says  the  writer,  who  so  rarely  speaks  a word 
in  his  own  person,  “in  all  this  did  not  Job  sin  with  his  lips.” 
We  have  here,  then,  the  highest  and  most  perfect  type 
of  patience  in  the  sense  of  human  resignation  ; the  calm, 
untroubled,  and  profound  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  God 
which  (in  words  which  are  not  my  own)  is  one  of  the 
qualities  which  marked  Eastern  religions  when  to  the  West 


i82 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


they  were  still  quite  unknown,  and  which  even  now  is  more 
remarkably  exhibited  by  Eastern  nations  than  among  our- 
selves. “ Thy  will  be  done,”  is  a prayer  which  lies  at  the 
root  of  all  religion.  It  stands  among  the  foremost  petitions 
in  the  Lord’s  Prayer,  and  it  is  deeply  engraven  in  the  whole 
religious  spirit  of  the  sons  of  Abraham,  even  of  the  race  of 
Ishmael.  In  the  words  “God  is  great,”  it  expresses  the 
best  side  of  Mohammedanism,  the  submission  to  the  will  of 
the  Heavenly  Father.  Yes,  we  can  feel  that  to  be  ready 
to  leave  all  in  God’s  hands,  not  merely  because  He  is 
great  and  powerful,  but  because  we  hold  Him  wise  and 
good,  is  the  very  essence  of  religion  in  its  highest  form  ; 
and  the  great  English  divine,  Butler,  has  well  said,  that 
though  such  a passive  virtue  may  have  no  development  in 
itself,  no  fitting  sphere  in  another  and  a better  world,  yet 
the  frame  of  mind  which  it  produces,  and  of  which  it  is  the 
sign,  is  the  very  frame,  of  all  others,  to  fit  men  to  be  active 
fellow-workers  with  God  in  a larger  sphere  and  with  higher 
faculties.  And  the  very  highest  type  of  such  entire  sub- 
mission we  have  thus  far  in  Job : poor  as  he  now  is,  he  is 
rich  in  trust  and  in  nearness  to  God,  and  pious  souls  will 
feel  that  if  there  is  a God  and  a Father  above  us,  and  if 
there  is  another  life  inconceivably  more  enduring,  and  with 
a larger  range  than  this,  that  it  is  better  to  have  felt  as  he 
felt,  than  to  be  the  lord  of  many  slaves  and  many  herds 
and  flocks,  and  the  possessor  of  unending  happiness  on  a 
happy  earth. 

And  here  ends  the  introduction  properly  so-called.  It 
ends  with  Job  miserable  but  resigned,  and  patient  on  his 
dung-heap.  Had  the  story  ended  there,  it  might  have 
remained  in  our  memories  as,  it  may  be,  an  overdrawn,  an 
excessive  ideal,  yet  not  wholly  an  impossible  picture  of 
what  is  sometimes  seen,  or  something  like  it,  in  real  life — 
trouble  after  trouble  coming  upon  some  human  soul.  We 
may  have  turned  aside  from  the  picture,  yet  it  may  have 
recurred  to  us  once  and  again  in  the  course  of  life’s  ex- 
perience, as  after  all,  a type  of  tragedies  that  are  in  their 
way  possible  in  this  tangled  world,  a type  of  many  an  over- 
true story.  But  the  story  does  not  end  here.  We  have 
only  passed  within  the  portal  of  the  book,  not  yet  entered 
the  gallery  of  conflicting  thoughts  that  we  have  to  tread, 
and  one  more  touch  comes,  the  transition  to  all  that  iollows. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


183 


Three  of  Job’s  friends — their  name  and  race  is  given- 
men,  it  would  seem,  of  the  race  of  Abraham  though  not  of 
Jacob,  have  heard  of  his  calamity  and  have  come  from 
far  to  comfort  him  ; but  as  they  raised  their  eyes  and  saw 
the  change,  the  horrors  and  the  miseries  of  that  spectacle 
overcame  them.  They  lifted  up  their  voice  and  wept,  we 
read,  and  used  every  sign  of  Eastern  lamentation,  and  then 
they  found  no  phrase  to  comfort  him.  How  should  they  ? 
They  sat  by  him  in  silence,  says  the  story,  seven  days  and 
nights,  for  they  saw  that  his  grief  was  very  great.  If  the 
imagery  is  of  the  East,  Eastern,  the  sentiment  that  under- 
lies it  is  neither  of  the  East  nor  of  the  West,  but  something 
world-wide.  There  are  troubles  in  whigh  we  can  show  our 
sympathies  best,  not  by  idle  words,  but  by  silence  and  by 
sorrow. 

So  far,  my  friends,  we  may  draw  our  own  lessons  from 
Job’s  submission,  and  Job’s  patience,  and  from  the  mute 
sympathy  of  those  who  visited  him.  They  preach,  surely, 
their  own  sermon,  if  we  had  come,  as  we  did  not  come,  to 
hear  a sermon. 

Before  I close,  let  me  bring  clearly  before  you  the  results 
of  what  we  have  thus  far  reached.  As  we  read,  the  narra- 
tive has  tended  in  one  direction  to  heighten  the  growing 
and  growing  contrast  between  Job’s  deserts — if  1 may  dare 
to  use  such  an  expression — and  Job’s  lot  in  life.  The  two 
are  brought  before  us  in  the  opening  verses  of  the  first 
chapter  as  in  entire  and  absolute  harmony  ; but  from  that 
moment  they  have  parted  company,  parted  at  every  step, 
and  have  become  more  divergent.  If  he  was,  when  the 
story  opens,  perfect  and  upright,  fearing  God  and  hating 
evil,  how  much  more  does  he  deserve  such  a description 
now — now,  when  the  sad,  sweet  uses  of  adversity  have 
done  their  best  work  upon  him,  and  when  he  comes  before 
us  purified  in  the  furnace  of  such  sore  affliction,  his  fear  of 
God  and  his  hatred  of  evil  proved  and  tried  to  the  very 
uttermost ; yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  shadows  that  had 
begun  to  darken  the  happiness  of  his  life  have  grown  at 
every  verse,  not  longer  only,  but  thicker  and  blacker.  The 
spectacle  before  us  is  that  of  one  who  combined  the  highest 
and  most  beautiful  piety  and  love  of  God  of  which  the 
human  soul  was  then  capable,  with  the  darkest  and  most 
tragic  misery.  Such  a spectacle  would  be  perplexing  to 


i84  expository  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


the  advanced  and  most  enlightened  Christians.  The  Book 
of  Job,  I need  scarcely  remind  you,  does  not  come  within 
range  of  New  Testament  teaching.  What  a problem  must 
such  a spectacle  have  seemed  to  the  pious  Hebrew, — to  one 
who  had  no  further  Gospel  as  yet  than  that  the  Lord 
ordereth  a good  man’s  going,  that  God  shows  mercy  unto 
thousands  of  those  that  fear  Him,  that  the  righteous  are 
never  forsaken,  that  even  in  this  life  men  are  rewarded  for 
their  righteous  dealing,  that  whatsoever  the  good  man  doeth 
shall  prosper,  that  it  is  the  ungodly  whose  prosperity  is  like 
chafif  which  the  wind  scattereth  away,  that  it  is  on  those 
that  delight  in  wickedness  that  God  rains  down  snares, 
fire  and  brimstone,  storm  and  tempest, — all  the  woes  and 
sorrows  that  have  fallen  on  the  head  of  Job.  Surely  it 
might  well  seem  to  such  that  the  foundations  were  cast 
down — the  very  foundations  of  their  faith  ; surely  they 
might  well  say,  ‘‘  What  hath  the  righteous  done  Such 
is  the  problem  that  will  come  before  us  when  next  we 
meet.  We  leave  Job  and  his  friends  seated  in  silence,  yet 
we  feel  that  the  sky  above  them  is  troubled,  and  that  there 
is  thunder  in  the  air.  We  shall  hear  the  storm  break  as 
we  pursue  our  course  through  the  book. 

G.  G.  R 


XXII.  The  Book  of  Job.— 3. 

We  have  considered  the  two  opening  chapters  of  the  Book 
of  Job.  I shall  remind  you  once  more  that,  interesting 
in  themselves  as  these  chapters  are,  and  important  and 
direct  as  is  their  bearing  on  what  follows,  yet  that  they  are 
not,  as  is  sometimes  supposed,  the  main  portion  of  the 
work,  followed  by  a long  appendix,  but  that  they  are 
simply  an  introduction,  the  best  of  introductions,  let  me 
say  once  more,  to  the  great  poem  that  follows.  At  their 
close  we  left  Job  crouching  in  utter  misery,  yet  calm  and 
patient,  the  very  model  of  resignation  and  acquiescence  in 
the  will  of  an  unseen  Master.  In  no  single  instance  do 
we  read  that  he  sinned  with  his  lips ; and  of  this  attitude 
of  resignation  as  an  element  in  the  Christian  and  religious 
life  I have  spoken  fully.  Friends,  too,  you  remember,  were 
by  his  side,  who  sympathized  with,  and  respected  his 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


185 


heavy  calamities.  They  sat  silent,  and  none  spake  a word 
unto  him,  for  they  saw  that  his  grief  was  very  great.  And 
now  we  close  the  introduction  and  open  the  book  itself. 
We  turn  to  its  opening  verses  and  all  is  changed.  Job’s 
silence  is  turned  to  loud  and  clamorous  outcries.  He 
was  Job  the  patient ; he  is  now  Job  the  impatient.  Indeed, 
the  whole  of  the  third  chapter  is  one  long  wail.  He  curses, 
in  all  the  wealth  of  wild  but  measured  and  elaborate 
Eastern  poetry,  the  day  of  his  conception — the  day  of  his 
birth.  In  another  stanza,  so  to  speak,  he  craves  for  death 
as  the  one  sovereign  anodyne  to  human  woe ; as  the  great 
leveller  that  brings  alike  the  hope  of  rest  to  kings  and 
councillors  in  their  solitary  and  stately  tombs,  and  the 
sleep  of  freedom  to  the  slave.  ‘‘  Wherefore,”  he  cries,  is 
light  given  to  him  that  is  in  misery,  and  life  to  the  bitter 
in  soul ; which  long  for  death  but  it  cometh  not ; and  dig 
for  it  more  than  for  hidden  treasures } ” It  is  a very 
moving  chapter  The  obscurities  of  language  are  com- 
paratively few.  The  very  intensity  and  passion  of  feeling 
seem  as  it  were  to  fuse  them  away.  It  flows  on  in  one 
broad  and  human  current  even  in  its  agony.  One  of 
its  phrases  has  passed,  as  we  know,  just  as  it  stands,  into 
recent  poetry ; but  parallels  to  others  abound.  And  it 
is  very  true,  essentially  true,  to  nature.  Great  calamities, 
great  losses,  are  sometimes  not  fully  felt  by  communities, 
by  nations,  or  by  churches,  at  the  first  blow,  at  the  moment 
they  fall.  The  loss  of  the  wise  counsellor,  or  the  guiding 
brain,  is  felt  more  keenly  later.  So  it  is  still  more  with 
individual  sorrows.  Some  griefs  men  can  meet  bravely 
at  the  very  first  shock.  They  do  not  fathom  their  full 
depth  of  bitterness  till  later  on.  “ God’s  will  be  done,” 
men  have  said  at  the  graveside,  but  the  waking  of  the 
morrow  has  brought,  perhaps,  other  feelings.  Some  here, 
perhaps,  may  have  learned  that  sad  lesson. 

But  moving  and  natural  as  the  chapter  is,  it  is  a symbol 
of,  and  a key  to,  much  that  follows.  It  shows  us  at  once 
that  the  main  and  substantial  portion  of  the  book  on  which 
we  have  now  entered,  is  separated,  as  by  a great  gulf,  from 
that  which  came  before  ; that  we  breathe  another,  a more 
troubled,  and  a more  stormy  atmosphere.  All  there  was 
calm  and  still,  even  if  the  skies  were  sombre.  But  now, 
the  winds  begin  to  moan,  and  the  thunder  to  roll,  and  the 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


1 86 


change  is  not  confined  to  Job.  Eliphaz  the  Temanite,  or 
Arabian  chief,  the  eldest,  doubtless,  of  his  friends,  breaks 
his  long  and  kindly  silence,  and  his  words,  though  he  saw 
but  a little  way  into  the  depths  of  that  troubled  heart,  are 
not  unkindly  words,  and  are  not  meant  to  be  so.  They 
also  are  the  key  to  all  that  follows,  on  the  side  of  him  and 
of  his  friends  ; though  in  form  they  are  different.  Mild  as 
yet,  they  are  well  weighed  and  dignified,  even  apologetic 
intone.  ‘'Wilt  thou  be  grieved,''  he  says,  “if  we  essay 
to  commune  with  thee  ? " He  was  shocked  at  Job's  wild 
words  of  despair.  “ Once,"  he  says,  “thou  didst  instruct 
and  strengthen  and  uphold  others,  and  now,  lo  ; when  evil 
toucheth  thee,  thou  faintest  and  art  troubled."  And  having 
said  this,  he  handles  for  a moment  tenderly,  and  half 
indirectly,  the  barbed  arrow  which  is  soon  to  rive  the  very 
heart  of  Job,  and  to  bring  to  him  a pang,  even  greater  than 
any  which  has  yet  torn  and  tried  him.  “ Who  ever,"  he 
says,  “ perished  being  innocent } When  were  the  righteous 
cut  ofif.^"  His  own  experience  in  that  simple  Arab  life 
tells  him  that  the  proverb  is  true,  that  they  that  plough 
iniquity  and  sow  wickedness  reap  the  same.  But  he  speaks 
oracularly,  and  relates  in  striking  language,  how  in  the 
visions  of  the  night,  when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon  men,  a 
shape,  if  shape  it  were  where  shape  was  none — a formless 
spirit,  passed  before  him,  and  awe  fell  upon  him  as  a 
mysterious  voice  came  forth,  telling  of  human  blindness, 
and  human  weakness  ; and  he  darkly  hints  that  his  friend 
should  forbear  from  calling  too  bitterly  on  that  great 
and  wise  Being,  which  doeth  great  and  wise  things,  and 
unsearchable  ; the  Lord  of  creation  who  giveth  rain  upon 
the  earth,  and  sendeth  water  on  the  fields ; the  Ruler 
of  creation,  who  disappointeth  the  devices  of  the  crafty, 
and  taketh  the  wise  in  their  own  cunning ; who  saveth, 
he  tells  him,  the  poor,  and  sets  on  high  the  lowly.  He 
bids  him  commit  his  case  to  Him,  accept  His  correc- 
tions as  a blessing,  and  despise  not  His  chastisement,  for 
His  chastisement  is  correction.  It  is  the  only  light  in 
which  he  can  view  his  friend's  misery,  and  if  he  does  this, 
he  promises  him  in  a series  of  Eastern  images,  that  typify 
all  the  forces  of  nature  once  more  enlisted  on  his  side, 
God's  renewed  favour,  all  the  blessings  of  a prolonged  life 
that  He  shall  give  to  His  servant,  so  that  he  shall  come  to 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


187 


his  grave  in  a full  age,  like  to  a shock  of  corn  gathered  in 
his  season.  But  his  language,  however  well  meant,  falls 
wide  of  its  mark.  It  prepares  the  way  for,  though  it  does 
not  yet  provoke,  the  fierce  explosions  that  come  later  on. 
At  all  events  it  brings  little  comfort  to  his  afflicted  friend. 
How  could  it? 

And,  once  more,  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  chapters.  Job 
returns,  not  exactly  to  the  exceeding  loud  and  bitter  cry 
of  his  first  utterance,  yet  to  the  prolonged  moan  of  sorrow. 
‘‘Not  without  reason,”  he  says,  “do  I lift  up  my  voice. 
The  wild  ass  brays  not,  even  the  very  ox  lows  not  when  fully 
satisfied  ; and  my  cries  come  from  a wounded  heart,  from 
a deep  sense  of  agony.”  And  once,  once  more  he  turns 
from  his  friends  to  his  Maker  and  prays  for  death  ; that  it 
would  please  God,  he  says,  to  let  loose  His  hand  and  cut 
him  off ; that  He  would  give  him  the  rest  in  death  for 
which  he  sighs,  as  a slave  toiling  beneath  the  sun  of  Asia 
longs  to  claim  his  freedom,  as  the  labourer  looks  for 
the  wages  of  his  work ; and  then,  in  full  tone,  he  pleads 
against  his  sufferings,  the  mystery  of  life  and  the  ter- 
rible finality  of  death.  “Oh!  remember,”  he  says,  “that  my 
life  is  but  breath  or  wind,  and  that  as  a cloud  is  dissolved 
and  is  no  more  seen — so  he  that  dies  returns  no  more 
from  the  under-world  to  the  home  he  has  left,  neither 
shall  his  ancient  place  know  him  any  more.”  And  then 
he  recounts  his  weary  night  when  he  craves  for  the  dawn 
of  the  day  that  passes  without  hope ; he  resents  the  un- 
sympathizing words  of  the  oldest  of  his  friends,  friends 
who  are  to  him  in  the  hour  of  his  sore  need  like  a 
treacherous  torrent  that  dries  up  in  the  sultry  desert,  and 
turns  to  despair  the  hopes  of  the  thirsty  traveller ; and 
then  he  half  angrily  pleads  once  more  with  his  God 
to  remove  from  him  these  haunting  visions,  and  these 
wearying  bonds  : “ Pardon  so  frail  a being,  pardon, 

oh  1 Thou  Watcher  of  mankind,  pardon,  ere  he  dies  in 
sin  that  he  has  committed,  ere  it  be  too  late.”  Its 
imagery  is  very  plaintive  — and  it  is  wholly  natural. 
But  it  is  far  removed  from  Mohammedan  resignation — 
further  still  removed  from  that  Christian  hope  of  those  who 
out  of  weakness  are  made  strong,  and  who  in  the  very 
valley  of  humiliation,  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
feel  God’s  hand  leading  and  supporting. 


i88 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


And  now  in  the  eighth  chapter,  the  second  friend, 
Bildad  the  Shuhite,  of  another  Arabian  tribe,  stands  for- 
ward. He,  like  the  first  speaker,  puts  himself  in  the 
attitude  of  pleading  before  his  God,  and  of  rebuking  one 
whose  faith  is  weak.  ‘‘  Doth  God  pervert  judgment  ; or 
doth  the  Almighty  warp  justice  } ” 

And  he  too  offers  a suggestion,  shocking  to  us,  but  which 
gives  force  to  the  view  against  which  so  much  of  the  teach- 
ing of  this  book  is  directed,  the  suggestion  that  Job’s  chil- 
dren suffered  for  the  sins  of  their  father.  He  appeals  no 
longer  to  the  revelation  made  in  the  vision,  but  to  tradition, 
to  the  authority  of  a primitive  anc}  a wiser  age,  against  one 
whose  words  are  rash.  He  cannot  too  soon  turn  to  God 
and  make  supplication  to  the  Almighty.  God,  he  assures 
him,  will  not  cast  away  the  perfect  man  ; but  neither  will 
He  accept  evil-doers.  Job  finds  scanty  comfort  in  these 
words.  The  mighty  stream  of  misery  is  sweeping  him  to 
his  grave,  and  his  friends  are  merely  throwing  him  straws. 

How,”  he  says,  ‘‘  can  I vindicate  myself  with  God.  The 
thoughts  that  burn  within  me,  how  dare  I bring  them  out 
to  Him  } He  removes  the  mountains  and  He  shakes  the 
earth.  He  stays  the  sun,  and  seals  up  the  starlight,  and 
gives  their  lights  to  the  bright  spheres.  Were  I never  so 
convinced  of  the  justice  of  my  cause,  I dare  not  plead 
with  Him.  Better  to  condemn  myself  than  answer 
Him.” 

See  how  his  soul  sways  to  and  fro  in  his  misery.  This 
one  thing,”  he  says,  “I  see  that  He  destroys  the  righteous 
with  the  wicked,  that  evil  is  triumphant  on  the  earth,  that 
if  I prove  my  innocence  to  be  white  as  snow,  this  mighty 
Being  can  plunge  me,  as  it  were,  in  foulness,  and  there  is 
no  superior  judge,”  he  cries,  “ to  decide  between  us.”  Alas  ! 
no  mediator  between  God  and  man.  “ Oh,  that  He  would 
take  away  these  heavy  woes,  and  let  me  plead  my  cause 
fairly.”  And  after  these  audacious  words  he  turns  to  God 
in  the  very  bitterness  of  his  soul,  and  ‘‘  Show  me,”  he  says, 
“wherefore  Thou  contendest  with  me.  Thy  hands  have 
made  me  and  fashioned  me  long  ago.  Why,  like  a malig- 
nant human  foe,  dost  Thou  deal  so  cruelly  with  Thine  own 
creature,  one  whose  innocence  Thou  knovvest.  Oh,  why 
didst  Thou  give  me  the  gift  of  this  weary  life  ? Having 
given  it,  why  not  give  me  some  respite  that  I may  take 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


189 


comfort  some  little  before  I go  where  I shall  never  return, 
to  the  land  of  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death,  a land 
of  darkness  as  darkness  itself,  without  any  order — where 
the  light  is  as  darkness — from  the  sunlight  to  the  sunless 
land." 

There  is  not,  you  see,  one  word,  as  it  were,  left  of  resigna- 
tion or  patience.  Only  a moan,  now  loud,  now  low,  of  one 
who  feels  himself  wronged,  deserted  of  the  God  who  loves 
him,  who  lifts  up  his  cry  for  mercy  and  relief.  Neither  is 
there,  so  far,  a word  of  hope  for  redress  beyond  the  grave. 
His  friends'  words  seem  full  to  overflowing  of  the  even  cur- 
rent of  pious  and  indisputable  truths  ; his  much  the  reverse. 
Yet  somehow,  as  we  read,  our  hearts  go,  and  seem  meant 
to  go,  with  him,  rather  than  with  them. 

And  now  the  third  friend  speaks.  It  is  in  the  same  key 
as  those  that  went  before.  His  language  is  sharp  and  stern. 
He  deals  no  longer  in  hints  and  suggestions  : “ Should  thy 
falsehoods,"  he  says,  ‘‘make  other  men  silent.^"  He  taxes 
Job  with  self-flattery,  self-righteousness,  with  the  sin  even 
of  profanity  in  saying  to  his  Maker  “ I am  clean  in  Thine 
eyes."  He  declares  to  him  that  whatever  his  sufferings, 
God  is  exacting  from  him  less  than  he  deserves,  and  then, 
after  dwelling  in  striking  language  on  the  holy,  mysterious 
nature  of  Him  whom  he  is  charging  by  his  loud  cries,  he 
bids  him  put  iniquity  far  away,  and  then  he  shall  forget  all 
his  miseries,  then  the  rush  of  sorrow  shall  pass  away,  and 
he  shall  be  restored  to  the  noonday  of  God's  favour,  and 
therefore  to  happiness.  It  is  too  much  for  Job.  The  whole 
world  is  against  him.  He  stands  alone  in  his  doubts  and 
in  his  misery. 

These  three  friends  represent,  not  the  majority  only,  but 
the  sum  total  of  the  religious  thought,  the  religious  world, 
the  Church,  we  may  say,  of  his  day — the  quod  semper^  quod 
ubique^  quod  ab  omnibus ; and  they  no  more  share  his 
anxious  questionings  than  they  share  his  bodily  pangs. 
In  the  twelfth  and  two  following  chapters,  he  bursts  forth 
afresh  in  a strain  of  sorrow  and  upbraiding  that  dies  away 
into  despair  as  he  turns  away  from  them  to  the  God  who 
has  so  afflicted  him.  “No  doubt,"  he  says,  “ye  are  the 
people,  ye  represent  the  whole  world,  and  wisdom,  doubt- 
less, will  die  with  you.  And  me — me  whose  footsteps  are 
slipping  on  life's  hard  course,  you  who  sit  at  ease  can 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


190 


scorn.  Would  you  tell  me  of  God’s  greatness  ? All  crea- 
tion knows  and  all  history  teaches,  the  beasts,  the  fowls, 
the  fishes,  earth  and  sea,  kingdoms  and  nations  tell  us  of 
His  power.  What  ye  know,  I know  also.  Sorrowful 
counsellors  are  ye  all,  poor  pleaders  for  your  God.”  And 
then  bidding  them  hold  their  peace,  he  declares  that,  come 
what  will,  he  will  yet  plead  with  God.  ‘‘  Though  He  slay 
me,  yet  will  I so  far  trust  Him  as  to  plead  before  Him.” 
And  then,  with  another  sad  appeal  to  his  Maker,  to  with- 
draw that  heavy  hand  and  let  him  plead  face  to  face,  he 
implores  Him  again  to  let  him  know  what  is  his  trans- 
gression, what  is  his  sin.  “Wherefore  hidest  Thou  Thy 
face,  and  boldest  me  for  Thine  enemy  ? Thou  writest 
bitter  things  against  me.”  We  see  that  the  imagery  here, 
as  elsewhere,  is  drawn  from  the  formal  processes  of  the 
registers  and  deeds  of  judicial  courts  in  no  uncivilized  land, 
and  it  makes  him  still  responsible  for  the  forgotten  iniqui- 
ties of  his  youth.  And  then  his  spirit  dies  within  him, 
and  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  we  have  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  of  utterances  that  ever  passed  from  human  lips  : 
“ Man  that  is  born  of  a woman  is  of  few  days,  and  is  full 
of  trouble.  He  cometh  forth  like  a flower,  and  is  cut 
down;  he  fleeth  as  the  shadow,  and  continueth  not.”  And 
can  God  enter  into  conflict  with  one  so  frail  ; or  expect 
strength  and  perfection  from  so  poor  a weed  } Let  him 
rest  till  his  short  day  is  over.  And  then  in  words  of 
solemn  and  sustained  hopelessness  he  paints  man’s  ephe- 
meral nature  in  images  which  poet  after  poet  have  scarcely 
yet  exhausted — “ there  is  hope  of  a tree,”  he  says,  “ that 
if  it  be  cut  down  it  will  spring  up  again,  at  the  scent  of 
water.”  How  natural  the  language  ! At  one  vivifying 
touch  of  rain  in  the  sunburnt  East,  it  will  bud  forth  and 
bourgeon.  “ But  man  lieth  down  and  riseth  no  more  ; till 
the  heaven  of  heavens  above  be  no  more  the  dead  shall 
not  awake  nor  be  raised  out  of  their  sleep.”  What  a 
chill  and  despairing  cry.  Then  a sort  of  faint  gleam  of 
hope ! He  breathes  a prayer  that  God  would  hide  him 
for  awhile  in  the  grave  till  the  storm  of  His  wrath  were 
over.  “ Let  me,  let  me  wait  even  in  death,  for  a better 
time,”  till  his  Maker  should  yearn  over  the  creature  to 
whom  he  had  given  his  being.  But  no  ; the  hope  vanishes 
as  soon  as  seized.  God’s  sentence  is  gone  against  him. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


191 


It  is  sealed  and  fixed.  And  he  turns  in  utter  agony  to 
the  great  Creator  as  the  great  destroyer.  The  solid 
mountains,”  he  says,  “ come  to  nought ; the  waters  wear 
the  stones.”  If  the  words  are  those  of  an  Arabian  patri- 
arch, the  thoughts  are  those  of  one  who  in  the  light  of 
modern  science  sees  the  slow  action  of  the  dissolving  rains 
and  the  rushing  torrents  of  the  broad  river,  sowing  the 
dust  of  continents  to  be. 

Nature,  he  says,  as  well  as  life,  tell  us  the  same  sad  tale. 
Change,  and  decay,  and  destruction  are  everywhere  ; the 
individual  withers  and  the  world  is  more  and  more.  “ Thou 
destroyest  the  hope  of  man  ; Thou  prevailest  for  ever 
against  him  ; Thou  changest  his  countenance  and  sendest 
him  away.  His  sons  come  to  honour,  and  he  knoweth  it 
not ; they  are  brought  low,  but  he  perceiveth  it  not.  The 
same  doom  is  over  all  Thy  works.”  His  language  is  the 
very  reverse  of  the  psalmist's  words  : “ All  Thy  works 
praise  Thee,  and  Thy  saints  give  thanks  to  Thee.” 
“All  Thy  works  pass  away,  and  thou  regardest  them 
not.” 

Once  more,  then,  we  have  pleading,  agony,  contention, 
questioning,  despair.  We  have  everything  in  the  world, 
we  might  say,  except  patience  ; and  the  climax  is  not 
reached  even  yet.  The  dialogue  is  resumed.  Each  of 
the  three  friends  rises  in  turn  to  speak  once  more,  and 
each  is  followed  in  due  course  by  Job.  And  yet  again, 
two  out  of  the  three  return  to  the  argument,  and  are 
followed  by  a long  soliloquy,  as  we  might  call  it,  from 
Job  himself. 

It  would  clearly  detain  us  far  too  long  to  go,  as  we  have 
thus  far  done,  chapter  after  chapter  through  the  whole 
dialogue.  Let  me  summarize — it  is  easily  done — the  posi- 
tion maintained  by  those  whom  Job  calls  in  his  bitterness 
his  miserable  comforters.  They  represent,  and  are  obviously 
meant  to  represent,  the  class  of  good  and  God-  fearing  men 
who  do  not  feel  at  all  acutely  the  perplexities  and  the 
problems  of  life,  and  who  resent  as  merely  mischievous 
and  misleading  the  doubts  which  these  perplexities  and 
problems  suggest.  Much  of  what  they  say  is  most  strik- 
ing. It  is  not  until  they  are  shocked  and  pained  at  Job’s 
presumption  that  they  plead,  and  seem  to  have  a right  to 
plead,  that  the  wisdom  of  antiquity  is  all  on  their  side ; 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


192 


what  wise  men  had  told  from  their  fathers*  day  were 
genuine  traditions  better  than  the  mere  idle  tale  of  some 
passing  stranger,  and  that  they  bring  against  him  the 
wisdom,  and  thought,  and  experience  of  grey-headed  and 
very  aged  men,  much  older  than  his  father.  Much,  also, 
that  they  say  is  very  true  as  well  as  very  striking,  on  God’s 
greatness,  the  greatness  and  omniscience  of  Him  in  whose 
sight  not  even  the  very  heavens  are  clean.  On  human 
weakness  and  sinfulness  they  enlarge  in  language  which 
will  never  lose  its  force.  So,  too,  on  God’s  readiness  to 
receive  those  who  will  turn  to  Him  under  chastening  they 
preach  almost  as  preachers  of  the  Gospel  before  the  Gospel 
came  ; and  for  a most  striking  picture  of  the  force  and 
power  of  an  evil  conscience  haunting  the  evildoer  even  in 
the  height  of  prosperity,  a dreadful  sound  ringing  in  his 
ears,  a voice  within  telling  him  that  a sword  is  waiting  him 
in  the  darkness,  and  an  inward  trouble  and  anguish  causing 
him  more  terror  than  kings  arrayed  against  him  in  battle, 
we  may  turn  to  the  second  speech  of  Eliphaz  in  the  fifteenth 
chapter.  Throughout  all  these  runs  the  unshaken  and 
unfailing  conviction  that  God  hates  evil  and  loves  good, 
that  the  Divine  power  is  a power  that  works,  and  works 
actively  for  righteousness. 

The  cursory  reader,  nay,  the  attentive  reader,  may 
naturally  as  he  reads,  anticipate  the  close,  and  ask  himself 
how  is  it  possible  that  men  who  speak  so  wisely  and  so 
well,  and  who  evidently  are  full  of  the  conviction  of  what 
they  say,  who  are  doing  their  very  utmost  to  rise  to  the 
height  of  the  greatest  of  all  arguments,  to  justify  the 
ways  of  God  to  men,  are  at  the  end  of  the  book  rebuked, 
while  Job,  of  whose  bold  questionings  and  repinings  and 
doubts  and  murmurs  we  have  only  yet  heard  a part,  is 
justified. 

Let  me  end  this  with  one  more  word  on  the  attitude 
of  the  three  friends,  true  friends  as  their  visit  showed, 
devout  men  as  their  language  showed,  orthodox  men 
after  the  prevailing  belief  of  their  day,  as  their  entire 
agreement  with  each  other,  and  their  appeals  to  the  con- 
sent of  the  good  and  the  aged  shows, — yet,  after  all,  utterly 
mistaken  men.  In  the  first  place  their  sympathy  with  him 
with  whom  they  reason  soon  left  them.  “ Who  is  weak 
and  I am  not  weak  ? who  is  offended,  and  I burn  not } ” 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


193 


That  Divine  cry  of  sympathy  was  not  their  language.  On 
the  contrary,  the  tempests  in  Job’s  soul  only  lower  him  in 
the  eyes  of  the  men  who  sat  watching  him  safely  on  the 
mainland.  They  were  shocked  at  his  failure  in  faith,  as  it 
seemed  to  them,  and  they  soon  began  to  upbraid  and  to 
denounce  him.  They  set  an  example  which  Christian 
controversialists  have  been  only  too  ready  to  follow ; they 
tried  to  break  that  much-bruised  reed,  to  quench  that 
smoking  flax.  Their  language  grows  harsh  and  stern  just 
where  harshness  and  sternness  were  most  wholly  out  of 
place. 

And  secondly  they  were  in  possession  of  certain  un- 
doubted truths,  truths  which  I have  already  indicated,  and 
to  utter  these  in  season  and  out  of  season  seemed  enough. 
Whether  they  were  the  truths  needed  for  the  special  trial 
with  which  they  had  to  deal  did  not  matter  to  them  ; it 
was  enough  that  they  were  true  ; and  the  result  was  what 
was  to  be  expected.  The  wholesome  medicine  became 
poison  in  their  unskilful  hands,  the  remedy  only  aggra- 
vated the  disease.  How  often  and  with  what  evil  results 
have  good  Christian  men  and  women  trodden  in  their 
steps,  and  repeated  the  same  error  ! 

And  finally,  all  that  they  said  was  tainted  with  one 
fundamental  error,  that  error  against  which  the  whole  of 
the  book  is  one  long  protest.  God  was  teaching  the  world 
in  the  sufferings  of  Job  a truth  new  to  the  early  world,  and 
very  hard,  as  we  see  centuries  later,  for  the  Hebrew  world 
to  realize.  One  great  object  of  the  book  is  to  announce 
the  truth  that  God’s  hand  may  be  heavy,  very  heavy,  on 
those  whom  He  dearly  loves  ; that  individual  suffering  is 
no  proof  of  individual  wrongdoing.  The  words,  “Think 
ye  that  those  on  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam  fell,  were 
sinners  above  all  men  ? ” or  again,  our  Lord’s  answer  to 
those  who  asked  Him  “ Whether  did  this  man  sin  or  his 
parents,  that  he  was  born  blind?*'  were  addressed  to  men 
who  still  clung  to  the  belief  that  personal  suffering  proved 
personal  guilt.  They  were  the  true  heirs,  the  spiritual 
children  of  those  in  this  book,  who,  beginning  with  gentle 
hints  could  end  with  taxing  their  friend,  to  whose  blame- 
less life  before  his  trials  came,  God  and  man  alike  had 
borne  their  witness,  with  a life  of  hypocrisy  and  double 
dealing,  and  infinite  injustices  and  meannesses, — with  having 

O 


194 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


in  the  midst  of  all  his  wealth  taken  a pledge,  as  one  said, 
from  his  brother,  and  of  having  stripped  the  naked  of  their 
clothing.  It  is  the  conflict  of  these  narrow  ideas  with  the 
new  and  Divine  light  dawning  as  sunlight  on  the  summit 
of  Alpine  mountains  in  some  solitary  hut,  the  light  that 
was  to  gather  one  day  round  the  Cross  of  Calvary,  and 
was  to  gild  many  a bitter  hour  of  poverty,  of  failure,  of 
bereavement,  of  humiliation,  of  sickness,  and  of  the  hour 
of  death,  that  lies  at  the  very  root  of  all  these  reiterated 
arguments,  all  of  this  that  seems  to  us  a long  monotony 
of  protest  and  appeal  that  makes  up  this  book. 

G.  G.  B. 


XXIII.  The  Book  of  Job —4. 

I so  far  anticipated  what  still  lies  before  us  in  my  last 
lecture,  as  to  give  you  a general  summary  of  the  language 
of  Job’s  three  friends,  at  the  supreme  moment  when,  at  the 
opening  of  the  thirty-second  chapter,  we  are  told  that  they 
ceased  to  answer  him  because  he  was  righteous  in  his  own 
eyes.  What  had  been  meantime  the  effect  of  their  argu- 
ments on  one  whose  despairing  words  at  the  close  of  the 
fourteenth  chapter  we  noticed  in  our  last?  What  had 
he  gained  from  their  well-meant  counsels  ? They  had  con- 
vinced him  at  least  that  there  was  no  human  consoler  left 
him.  He  felt  this  keenly  ; and  in  answer  to  the  words 
— the  often  eloquent  and  often  true,  but  still  inoppor- 
tune words — of  the  gentlest  of  his  interlocutors,  he  drily 
replied  : I have  heard  many  such  things  ; miserable  com- 

forters are  ye  all.”  And  so  again  in  answer  to  another, 
‘‘  How  long  will  ye  vex  my  soul  and  break  me  in  pieces 
with  your  words?”  “Not  so,”  he  says  very  touchingly, 
would  he  have  treated  them.  “Had  your  souls  been  in 
my  soul’s  place,  I would  have  strengthened  you  with  my 
mouth,  and  the  moving  of  my  lips  should  have  assuaged 
your  grief ; ” but  for  the  rest  he  turns  his  back  on  those 
ill-judging  friends,  and  pleads  (pleads  for  his  very  life)  no 
more  with  them,  but  with  the  God  who  is  afflicting  him.  I 
shall  put  before  you  samples  only,  but  they  shall  be  fair 
samples,  of  his  language. 

First,  what  I have  already  spoken  of  as  his  long  wail  is 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


195 


not  yet  over  ; it  breaks  forth,  rising  to  the  surface  like  a 
bitter  spring,  from  time  to  time,  in  various  forms  and  ex- 
pressions, under  various,  often  very  curious  and  interesting 
figures,  almost  to  the  end  of  all  that  he  says  ; and  the 
careful  reader  will  find  much  that  is  exceedingly  interesting 
and  suggestive  in  these  hymns,  if  I may  so  call  them,  of 
pain  and  suffering,  often  seeming  to  have  little  direct  re- 
ference to  Job’s  actual  state,  which  passed,  from  time  to 
time,  from  his  lips.  Read,  for  instance,  that  which  begins 
with  the  6th  and  ends  with  the  22nd  verse,  chap.  xix.  ; it 
will  remind  you,  verse  after  verse,  of  some  of  the  very 
saddest  and  most  solemn  of  all  the  psalms,  pointing  on- 
wards, even  as  they  do,  to  One  whose  sorrow  was  above 
all  human  sorrow.  “ He  hath  put  my  friends  far  from  me  ; 
and  my  familiar  friends  have  forgotten  me  ; ” and  ending 
with  the  heart-rending  appeal,  Have  pity  upon  me,  have 
pity  upon  me,  oh  ye,  my  friends,  for  the  hand  of  God  hath 
touched  me.”  Read,  again,  that  strange  description  of 
some  lower  and  conquered  aboriginal  race,  whose  fathers 
had  ranked,  he  says,  in  his  eyes  below  the  very  dogs  of  his 
father’s  flocks,  which  ushers  in  the  thirtieth  chapter.  How 
vivid,  how  life-like  the  picture  of  the  scanty  and  scorned 
tribe,  thinned  by  want  and  famine— driven  from  the  haunts 
of  civilized  man — cried  after  as  thieves  when  they  passed 
men’s  doors — dwelling  in  caves,  and  amongst  the  rocks, 
and  feeding  on  wild  roots — braying,  as  he  says,  in  their  un- 
intelligible half-articulate  chatter  among  the  bushes,  where, 
viler  than  common  clay,  they  crouched,  as  he  says  once 
more,  with  the  lower  animals ! 

But  the  whole  book  is  full  of  vivid  pictures,  vivid  touches 
of  the  life  of  that  early  world,  often  lying  covered  up 
beneath  the  obscurity  of  our  version  as — I used,  I think, 
the  figure  before — as  the  treasures  of  Pompeii  under  the 
ashes  of  Vesuvius.  If  I were  to  follow  them,  I should  lead 
you  aside  from  the  broad  human  highway  of  the  book  into 
its  strange  by-ways  and  interesting  recesses.  Let  me  go 
back  to  the  one  thread  which  runs  clear  and  strong  through 
the  twisted  and  tangled  strand,  alike  in  its  earlier  and  its 
later  subjects  ; the  quivering  sense  of  pain,  the  cry,  the 
complaint,  the  outspoken  agony. 

Secondly — side  by  side,  with  this — there  is  another 
stream  of  thought  that  heightens  and  gives  poignancy  to 


196  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


his  other  pangs.  It  is  the  moral  pain,  the  spiritual  torture, 
the  bewildering  sense  that  these  woes,  which  God  has  laid 
upon  him — for  never  for  a moment  does  he  doubt  that 
they  come  from  God — are  causeless,  unaccountable ; that 
he  has  not  merited  such  terrible,  such  signal,  such  excep- 
tional chastisement.  If  I am  to  lie  down  in  misery  that 
makes  me  cry  for  death,  if  I am  to  go  in  unrelieved 
misery  down  to  the  land  of  darkness,  it  is  for  no  act  of 
injustice  that  soils  my  hands.'’  “My  prayer,”  he  cries, 
“ is  pure ; ” and  then,  goaded  with  a sense  of  wrong — 
“ Earth,  earth,”  he  cries, — there  seems  to  be  (I  will  not 
speak  too  positively)  a rare  allusion  to  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
a reference  to  the  innocent  blood  of  Abel,  crying  from  the 
ground, — “ earth,”  he  says,  “ cover  not  my  blood,  hide  not 
my  cry.  I cry  out  for  my  wrong,  but  I am  not  heard  ; 
and  I cry  aloud,  but  I have  no  redress,”  and  he  appeals 
to  his  Sovereign  to  bear  witness  whether  he  has  gone  back 
from  His  commands,  whether  he  has  not  esteemed  the 
words  of  His  mouth  as  dearer  than  his  daily  bread  ; nay, 
he  feels  bound  to  assert  his  innocence  against  the  charges 
of  his  accusers.  “ My  righteousness  I will  hold  fast,  and 
I will  not  let  it  go.”  And  then  in  a chapter,  the  twenty- 
ninth,  more  pathetic,  more  moving,  if  I may  say  so,  than 
words  of  mere  lamentation,  he  recalls  the  happy  days  of 
the  golden  past,  when  the  “ candle  of  God  shone  upon  my 
head,  and  by  His  light  I walked  through  the  darkness  of 
life  ; when  the  Almighty  was  yet  with  me,  and  my  lost 
children  were  about  me  ; ” and  he  recalls  those  days  as 
not  merely  days  of  well-being,  but  of  well-doing.  It  was 
not  only,  you  will  see  if  you  read  that  chapter,  that  the 
young  men,  and  the  aged  princes  and  nobles  had  done  him 
honour,  but  he  could  add  that  ‘‘  When  the  ear  heard  me, 
then  it  blessed  me ; and  the  eye  when  it  saw  me,  gave 
witness  to  me.”  And  why  } “ Because  I delivered  the 

poor  that  cried,  the  fatherless,  and  him  that  had  no  helper; 
because  I won  the  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to 
perish,  and  caused  the  widow’s  heart  to  sing  for  joy.  Be- 
cause I was  a righteous  judge,  and  because  I rejected  not 
the  stranger’s  plea.  I searched  out  to  do  him  justice,  and 
so  I dwelt,”  he  says,  “ among  men  as  a king  among  his  host, 
as  a beneficent  king,  as  one  that  comforteth  the  mourners.” 
And  so,  later  on,  “ Did  not  I weep  for  him  that  was  in 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


197 


trouble  “Was  not  my  soul  grieved  for  the  poor?” 
And  in  his  last  appeal,  in  the  thirty-first  chapter,  to  the 
God  who  sees  his  woes,  and  counts  all  his  steps,  he  asserted 
his  innocence  of  sins  of  the  flesh,  of  niggardliness,  of  fraud, 
of  avarice,  of  oppression,  of  deadness  to  the  woes  of  others. 
The  very  slave,  he  says,  he  regarded  and  treated  as  his 
fellow-creature.  “Did  not  He  that  made  him  make  me?” 
The  fleeces  of  his  sheep  had  warmed  the  loins  of  the  poor 
Never  has  he  eaten  the  fruits  of  his  land  without  due  pay- 
ment to  his  labourer.  Never  has  he  exulted  in  the  sorrows 
of  his  ill  wishers.  Never  has  he  cursed  his  adversary. 
Never  has  he  eaten  his  food  alone  and  left  the  orphan 
unfed.  Never  has  the  generous  Arab  allowed  the  stranger 
to  lodge  beneath  the  cold  night  sky.  Never,  again,  has 
the  sun  when  it  shined,  or  the  moon  walking  in  its  bright- 
ness through  that  transparent  sky,  tempted  his  heart  to 
worship  or  his  hand  to  do  homage.  Never  has  he  denied 
the  God  who  so  afflicts  him.  We,  who  have  been  ele- 
vated, by  the  slow  process  of  God’s  Spirit  speaking  to  us 
through  the  ages,  to  a higher  level ; we  who  have  been 
born  into  the  dispensation  of  that  Spirit  that  was  to  con- 
vince the  world,  not  only  of  righteousness,  but  also  of 
sin  ; we  may  be  startled  by  such  broad  and  unflinching 
assertions  of  human  innocence ; but  the  sequel  shows  that 
in  one  sense,  and  that  a very  essential  sense,  they  were 
well  founded,  the  whole  book  would  be  meaningless  if  they 
were  false.  Yet  they  do  have  in  all  of  them  an  element 
of  error  and  imperfection,  and  it  is  the  mingling  of  these 
two  currents  that  forms  the  keenest  and  most  searching 
of  his  trials,  and  yet  perhaps  the  very  one  into  which  it  is 
most  easy  for  many  here,  and  now,  thoroughly  to  enter. 
His  wealth  had  gone  from  him,  we  know,  in  a moment  ; 
but  great  riches  are,  after  all,  exceptional,  and  the  sudden 
transition  from  opulence  to  utter  destitution  is  the  lot  of 
few.  His  children,  whom  He  so  dearly  loved,  had  been 
swept  away  at  a stroke,  sudden  and  signal.  Such  has  had 
its  parallels,  its  sad  and  its  very  rare  parallels  in  modern 
experience.  Health  had  gone  and  his  frame  was  racked 
with  sore  diseases.  It  is  an  accumulation  of  woes  on  a 
single  head,  such  as  we  may  say  is  seldom  or  never  seen 
on  the  stage  of  daily  and  of  practical  life.  Yet  all  this  he 
had  borne  with  a profound,  an  absolute  submission  to  Him 


198  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


who  gives  and  takes  away  the  joys  of  life,  our  life  itself. 
It  recalls  to  us,  as  I said  before,  not  only  Christian  sub- 
mission, but  that  which  forms  the  true  greatness,  the  re- 
deeming feature  in  the  life  of  the  pious  Mohammedan,  who 
when  wealth  and  children  and  health  had  gone,  something 
yet  remained  to  him;  he  walked  with  unseen  glory  crowned 
in  a sense  of  his  dependence  on  his  Maker  and  his  God. 
But  now  the  rebukes  of  his  unwise  friends  had  given  birth 
to  something  not  from  without,  but  from  within,  that  made 
the  solid  earth  reel  beneath  his  weary  frame.  Their  hard 
and  ready  dogmatism  had  forced  upon  him  a question  for 
which  his  soul  travailed  in  vain  to  find  an  answer.  This 
mighty,  this  almighty  Being,  whose  greatness,  and  whose 
justice,  and  whose  omniscience  they  discussed  so  fully,  was 
he  after  all  a righteous  Being  ? was  the  ruler  of  the  world 
a just  Ruler?  Did  the  Judge  of  mankind  judge  rightly? 
Powerful  He  is,  no  doubt.  Nature,  he  feels,  tells  His 
power.  In  His  hand,  he  says  himself,  is  the  life  of  every 
human  being,  the  health  of  all  rnankind.  History,  such  as 
he  knows  it,  tells  His  power.  Nations,  he  says,  rise  and 
fall,  and  kings  exchange  the  royal  girdle  for  the  cord  that 
encircles  the  loins  of  the  captive  horde.  What  if  all  this 
power  is  wielded  by  one  who  looks  with  indifference  on 
right  and  wrong,  and  smiles  alike  on  the  good  cause  and 
the  bad  ; who  leaves  the  world  to  be  misgoverned,  pain 
and  pleasure  to  flow  through  creation  at  random,  or,  worse 
still,  to  be  distributed  in  the  interest  of  wrong-doing  ; and 
all  the  wise  saws  of  his  friends  intensify  the  agony  of  this 
doubt.  They  tell  him  that  from  of  old,  from  the  day  when 
men  were  first  placed  on  the  earth,  the  triumph  of  the 
wicked  has  been  short ; that  God  had  been  invariably  and 
at  all  hours  the  good  man's  friend  ; that  he  himself  is 
paying  the  penalty  due  to  his  hypocrisy  and  ill  living,  and 
he  knows  that  this  is  false,  and  dark  thoughts  stir  within 
him,  and  bitter  doubts — doubts  that  have  tried  many  a 
heart  that  have  never  tasted  of  his  exceptional  and  tragic 
cup  of  misery — fill  his  brain,  and  shake  the  faith  that 
Satan’s  malice  had  vainly  tried.  “ Mark  me,”  he  says  in 
the  twenty-first  chapter,  ‘'and  be  astonished,  and  lay  your 
hands  upon  your  mouths.”  The  thought  that  stirs  within 
that  pious  patriarch  he  hardly  dares  to  utter.  “ Even  when 
I remember  Him  I am  afraid,  and  a trembling  takes  hold 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


199 


of  my  flesh.”  Yet  speak  he  must.  He  looks  out  with 
changed  eyes  on  the  spectacle  of  life,  and  beneath  the 
dress  of  the  patriarch  of  the  Old  Testament,  honoured  in 
all  the  Churches,  the  friend  of  God,  we  see  the  questioner 
of  the  most  fundamental  of  all  religious,  of  all  moral  truths. 
“ Wherefore,”  he  says,  “ do  the  wicked  live  and  become 
mighty  in  power  ? ” Their  seed  is  established  ; their 
families,  as  we  should  say,  are  founded  under  their  eyes  ; 
all  goes  well  with  them.  Their  wealth  increases,  and  all 
prospers.  They  send  forth  their  little  ones  like  a flock  ; 
and  their  children  dance  to  the  timbrel  and  the  harp.  We 
see  beneath  that  Eastern  imagery  the  prosperous  family  in 
all  ages  founded  on  wrong-doing.  They  spend  their  days 
in  wealth  ; in  a moment,  in  due  time,  they  go  down  un- 
punished to  their  graves.  Where  is  the  God  that  rules 
the  world  with  righteousness  ? And  he  tries  to  find  satis- 
faction for  his  doubts  in  retribution  falling  one  day  on 
their  posterity.  But  no,  he  comes  back  uncomforted  to 
the  same  question,  the  inequalities,  the  injustices  of  life. 
One  dieth  in  his  full  strength,  being  wholly  at  ease  and 
quiet  ; another  dieth  in  the  bitterness  of  his  soul,  and  never 
eateth  bread  with  pleasure.  They  lie  down  alike  in  the 
dust,  and  the  worms  cover  them.  It  is  the  opening  scene 
of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  without  its  sequel.  The  rich  man 
died  ; the  beggar  died  also.  And  we,  my  friends,  need 
not  go  through  Job’s  preliminary  tortures  to  feel  the 
problem  that  vexed  him.  An  hour’s  walk  in  London,  a 
day,  it  may  be,  in  a country  village,  may  stir  the  same 
question  ; and  think,  too,  how  much  darker  and  more  cruel 
the  world  must  have  seemed,  when  thus  regarded,  to  one 
who  lived  in  the  religious  atmosphere  which  Job  breathed. 
Not  one  word  all  his  friends  whispered  to  him  of  the  world 
beyond  the  grave.  Amidst  all  the  visions  that  haunted 
him,  there  is  none  of  One  who  tasted  shame  and  desolation 
and  death,  and  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are, 
yet  was  He  infinitely  dear  to  His  God,  to  His  father,  and 
lives  at  God’s  right  hand.  The  voice  that  spake  of  a life 
to  come,  was  not  wholly,  absolutely  dumb.  If  he  dare 
not  cherish  that  full  embodiment  of  the  Christian  hope 
which  meets  all  that  is  mortal  of  our  friends,  high  or  low, 
as  we  bear  them  to  their  graves,  yet  through  its  darkness 
and  obscurity,  there  is  at  the  very  least,  a looking  forward 


2 CO 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


to  the  sight  of  God,  when  the  bodily  frame  must  return  to 
dust ; and  once  or  twice  we  hear  the  accents  of  that  better 
voice,  but  its  accents  are  faint  and  low  and  overborne  by 
that  louder  voice,  the  dreary  touch  of  the  simple  sense 
that  speaks  of  death  as  the  final  and  eternal  end  of  each 
human  soul. 

And  so  he  stands  at  bay.  He  has  to  face  the  spectres 
of  his  mind  ; his  foes  are  indeed  those  of  his  own  house- 
hold— his  wife,  his  friends,  the  teaching  of  his  age,  the 
traditions  of  the  past,  his  own  sorrows,  his  own  experiences, 
his  own  tumultuous  thoughts ; and  what  is  left  him,  what 
severs  him  from  the  mere  cynical  denier  of  God’s  provi- 
dence and  God’s  goodness,  or  from  him  who  smiles  at 
all  distinctions  between  right  and  wfong  1 What  is  it  that 
gives  him  his  place  in  the  roll  of  God’s  servants?  Much 
is  left  him  still,  much  that  in  all  times  it  is  well  to  re- 
member is  dear  to  God.  There  is  the  eager,  the  passionate 
desire  for  truth,  “ Give  me  light  and  let  me  die”  ; and  there 
is  the  firm  persistance  in  calling  on  his  God  to  reveal  that 
truth  to  him.  Through  all  the  darkness  that  surrounds 
him,  does  not  the  search  for  God  still  haunt  his  soul  ? He 
thirsts  for  the  living  God,  for  God  and  His  truth.  “Be- 
hold, I go  forward,  but  He  is  not  there  ; and  backward, 
but  I cannot  perceive  Him  ; on  the  left  hand,  but  I cannot 
behold  Him  ; He  hideth  Himself  on  the  right  hand  that  I 
cannot  see  Him,”  and  so  “ Oh,  that  I knew  where  I might 
find  Him,  that  I might  go  even  to  His  throne.”  He  tries 
to  comfort  himself  by  drawing  pictures,  even  as  his  friends 
had  done,  magnificent  pictures  of  the  greatness  of  Him 
at  whose  reproof  the  pillars  of  the  heavens  tremble  and 
are  astonished,  and  he  lays  his  fingers  for  a moment  on 
the  immortal  truth,  that  all  these  are  but  parts  of  His 
ways,  that  we  hear  but  a small  portion,  that  we  see,  in 
modern  language,  but  the  skirts  of  creation,  and  he  speaks 
of  truth  and  wisdom  as  sorely  hard  to  find  ; as  hidden 
from  the  eye,  as  veins  of  metal  which  can  only  be  reached 
by  the  dark  miner’s  path  ; a hidden  path  like  that  beneath 
the  earth,  which  the  vulture’s  eye  hath  not  seen,  the  lion’s 
whelps  have  not  trodden,  nor  hath  the  fierce  lion  passed 
by  it.  Yet  for  all  that,  he  speaks  of  human  wisdom  as 
consisting  in  the  fear  of  God  and  avoidance  of  evil ; and 
he  cannot  believe  that  to  do  justice,  and  to  love  mercy,  and 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


201 


to  walk  humbly  with  God,  can  alienate  a man  from  God. 
And  just  before  his  last  words  had  died  away,  he  breaks 
forth  into  one  last  piteous  appeal,  obscured  though  it  be 
in  our  rendering  of  his  imagery,  that  the  God  who  seemed 
his  adversary  would  reveal  to  him  His  will,  would  only  hear 
and  answer  him.  ^‘The  words  of  Job  are  ended.’'  Such  is 
the  close  of  the  thirty-first  chapter.  That  most  eloquent 
of  voices  is  hushed.  His  friends  who  listened  to  him  were 
pained  and  shocked,  and  they  forebore  to  argue  with  him 
any  more,  because  he  was  righteous  in  his  own  eyes.  But 
we  may  feel  as  we  read  through  the  book,  that  it  was  not 
only  the  full,  the  desperate,  the  proud  avowal  of  the  in- 
tegrity of  his  early  life  that  silenced  these  representatives, 
as  I have  called  them  before,  of  the  religious  thought  of 
the  age  of  Job.  It  was  the  upheaval  of  a new  stratum  of 
ideas,  if  I may  so  speak,  that  revolted  them.  The  question 
that  Job  had  stirred  was  one  that  had  disarranged  all  their 
hereditary  creed.  He  was  the  teacher,  the  unconscious, 
the  half-articulate  teacher,  of  a doctrine  that  would  cut 
across  all  their  views  of  the  government  of  the  world, — of 
a doctrine  that  would  one  day  be  a very  Gospel  of  life, — 
that  God  might  be  the  friend,  the  living  friend  of  one 
sorely  afflicted,  and  who  was  not  therefore  to  be  listened 
to  or  argued  with  longer.  Their  feelings  were  very  natural. 
We,  as  I said  before,  feel  that  there  is  something  that  is 
not  of  the  very  highest  type  of  religious  thought  even  in 
those  simple  and  moving  appeals  to  his  blameless  life 
which  fell  from  the  lips  of  Job  ; and,  at  all  events,  we  can 
sympathize  in  the  outcries  of  the  men  whose  creed  con- 
tained few  articles,  but  among  them  one  to  which  they 
clung  as  the  fundamental  article  of  their  faith — that  suffer- 
ing was  always  and  invariably  the  sign  of  sin,  great  and 
overwhelming  calamity  a sure  sign  of  great  and  signal 
criminality.  And  if  Job’s  assertions  of  innocence  were 
well  founded,  a well-ordered  universe  would  be  resolved 
into  chaos.  With  such  questions  they  might  well  fail  to 
sympathize.  The  very  foundations  of  the  great  deep 
seemed  broken  up ; and  their  creed  must  dissolve  and 
construct  itself  afresh.  It  is  not  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world  that  the  majority  of  religious  pro- 
fessors have  been  wrong.  The  solitary  thinker,  the  philo- 
sopher, the  heretic,  the  forlorn  monk,  the  rejected  of  their 


202 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


day,  have  been  sometimes,  even  in  spite  of  many  errors, 
in  the  right.  That  little  group  in  the  unknown  land  of 
Uz,  who  tried  to  silence  the  one  among  them  who  was  in 
his  world  like  the  herald  and  the  apostle  of  a truth  that 
was  one  day  to  be  embodied  in  the  symbol  of  Christ’s 
religion,  may  warn  us  against  thinking  that  truth  is  always 
to  be  found  on  the  side  of  numbers — that  the  God  of  truth 
marches  always  with  the  largest  battalions.  How  startling 
to  those  who  heard  it,  how  instructive  to  those  who  read 
it,  are  the  words  which  we  shall  find  when  next  we  meet ! 
“Ye,  ye,  who  have  been  so  earnest,  so  rigid  in  justifying 
My  ways  and  asserting  your  righteousness,  ye  have  not 
spoken  the  thing  that  is  right,  as  My  servant  Job  hath.” 
And  surely  a new  meaning  must  be  found  for  the  word 
patience,  as  elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament,  so  also  in 
the  words,  which  some  will  remember,  of  St.  James  : “Ye 
have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and  ye  know  the  end  of 
the  Lord,  that  the  Lord  is  very  pitiful  and  of  tender 
mercy.”  There  may  be  a higher  patience  than  that  of 
submissiveness  ; a holding  out  of  a corner  of  the  fortress 
against  desperate  odds — the  resistance  of  a charge  by  a 
handful  may  determine  the  issues  of  a campaign.  He  that 
shall  endure  to  the  end,  said  a greater  than  the  Apostle 
James,  shall  be  saved.  “ If  ye  have  faith  as  a grain  of 
mustard  seed,  ye  shall  remove  mountains  ; ” remove,  and 
raise,  and  elevate  what  is  more  precious  than  a mountain, 
the  human  soul. 

a G.  B. 


XXIV.  The  Book  of  Job.— 5. 

We  are  reaching  the  closing  scene.  We  are  in  sight  of 
what  may  be  called  the  catastrophe  of  the  Book  of  Job. 
The  three  friends  are  silenced  ; the  words  of  Job  are  ended  ; 
the  ground  seems  clear.  But  before  the  close,  there  comes 
what  appears  to  be  an  episode,  a pause  in,  a diversion  from, 
the  main  progress  of  the  story.  A fresh  character  under 
the  name  of  Elihu  appears  on  the  scene.  He  was  unmen- 
tioned before ; he  will  be  unnoticed  at  the  close,  where  all 
but  himself  are  passed  in  review,  and  receive  their  meed  of 
praise  or  blame.  And  there  are  many  who,  from  various 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


203 


reasons,  hold  that  the  chapters  devoted  to  him — the  thirty- 
second  to  the  thirty-seventh  inclusive — are  not  parts  of  the 
original  Book  of  Job,  but  were  added  later  on,  possibly  by 
the  writer  himself,  to  mitigate  the  shock  produced  on  pious 
readers  by  the  sudden  reversal,  by  the  judgment  of  God,  of 
the  judgment  of  what  almost  might  be  called  the  Church 
of  the  day  as  represented  by  the  friends  of  Job. 

I need  not  enter  into  so  vexed,  and  thorny,  and  difficult 
a question.  Yet  you  would  wish  me,  I feel  sure,  to  glance  at 
the  substance  of  the  new  speaker’s  words,  and  to  indicate  his 
attitude,  which  seems  to  me  to  go  far  to  explain  his  words. 
He  is  younger  than  those  who  have  yet  spoken.  He  has 
listened  to  the  words  of  his  elders  with  that  outward  defer- 
ence shown  by  a true  son  of  the  East  to  age  and  experience. 
‘‘  I am  young,”  he  says  expressly  of  himself,  “ and  ye  are 
old  ; wherefore  I was  afraid,  and  durst  not  show  to  you 
mine  opinion.”  Yet,  as  he  listened,  his  anger,  we  read, 
was  kindled  against  Job,  because  he  justified  himself  against 
God  ; also  against  the  three  friends  was  his  anger  kindled, 
because  they  had  found  no  answer,  and  yet  had  condemned 
Job.  He  represents,  it  would  appear,  something  different ; 
a younger  generation,  more  open  to  new  ideas,  less  reso- 
lutely set  against  fresh  shapes  of  truth,  and  more  fit  to  be 
the  means  of  transition  from  one  stage  of  religious  know- 
ledge and  spiritual  life  to  another.  So  much  we  may  fairly 
say.  And  it  is  well  that  we  who  are  older  should  remem- 
ber that  if  youth  is  often  presumptuous,  age  is  almost 
invariably  averse  to  change  ; somewhat  intolerant  of  what 
seems  novel,  and  therefore  revolutionary  ; and  as  slow  to 
do  justice  to  the  new  forms  in  which  God  may  be  fulfilling 
Himself,  as  were  Job’s  friends  to  bear  with  the  new  truth 
to  which  his,  as  it  seemed  to  them,  profane  and  daring 
language  was  the  prelude. 

Into  the  full  details  of  his  long  discourse  I,  of  course, 
shall  not  enter.  We  must  not  look  for  the  carefully  con- 
structed argument  of  a Platonic  dialogue.  The  accents 
of  the  last  human  speaker  in  this  book  are,  we  must  allow, 
correctly  described  as  somewhat  trembling  and  hesitating; 
the  argument  is  somewhat  confused  and  complicated. 
Doubtless  he  too,  like  his  friends,  censures  Job  for  speaking 
of  himself  as  clean  and  without  transgression,  and  as  treat- 
ing God  as  his  enemy  ; and  he  speaks  of  pain  and  suffering 


204 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


as  a discipline,  and  of  God  as  raising  up  the  penitent  from 
the  very  edge  of  death  to  be  enlightened  once  more  with 
the  light  of  the  living  ; yet  for  all  this,  he  does  not  do  much 
to  lift  them  out  of  the  difficulty.  He  is  shocked  at  the 
thought  that  he  attributes  to  Job,  that  it  profiteth  a man 
nothing  that  he  should  delight  himself  with  God  ; “ God 
forbid,’*  he  says.  The  work  of  a man  will  God  render 
unto  him,  and  cause  every  man  to  find  at  last  according  to 
his  ways.’*  ‘‘Yea,  surely,**  he  says  (the  words,  my  brethren, 
are  sure  words),  “ God  will  not  do  wickedly ; neither  will 
the  Almighty  pervert  justice.**  “ Shall,”  he  asks,  “he  that 
hateth  right  govern.'^”  “Shall  the  Judge  of  the  whole 
world  do  wrong } ” we  read  elsewhere  ; “ and  wilt  thou  con- 
demn Him  that  is  most  just?**  He  has  not  felt  (how 
should  youth  have  felt  .^)  Job’s  trials  ; and  he  cannot  sym- 
pathize, therefore,  with  Job*s  anxious  questionings.  So  far, 
also,  as  we  understand  his  language,  he  seems  to  miss  the 
real  and  vital  core  of  the  problem  that  Job’s  case  has  brought 
to  light.  He  speaks,  or  seems  to  speak,  as  though,  because 
God  was  so  great  and  high,  therefore  Job’s  righteousness, 
or  Job’s  innocence,  or  Job’s  guilt,  however  important  in  the 
sight  of  man,  mattered  little.  Yet  it  may  be  that  we  are 
wrong  in  judging  thus,  and  that  he  is  only  obscurely  indi- 
cating the  surpassing  greatness  of  God,  of  whom  he  says 
very  strikingly  in  his  closing  words,  that,  unsearchable 
as  He  is,  and  past  finding  out,  yet  that  He  is  certainly 
excellent,  not  in  power  only,  but  also  in  judgment  and 
in  abun  dance  of  justice,  and  that  He  will  not  afflict  His 
children. 

With  these  words  he  passes  from  the  scene  which  he  has 
merely  traversed,  to  speak  once  with  a kind  of  balanced 
judgment, — that  may  remind  us,  perhaps,  of  more  than  one 
utterance  of  the  chorus  in  some  Greek  tragedy, — which  a 
hasty  critic  would  scarcely  wish  to  cancel  ; and  then, 
when  human  advisers  and  human  censors  have  done  their 
best  and  done  their  worst,  God  answers  Job  out  of  the 
Whirlwind. 

And  what  is  that  answer  ? How  eagerly  may  we  lean 
forward,  as  it  were,  to  listen  ! Those  who  have  in  any  way 
followed  Job’s  sad  history  and  feverish  pleading  might  well 
have  hoped  that,  with  such  a knot  to  untie,  the  voice  of  God 
would  not  have  been  heard  at  all  unless  to  solve  the  whole 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


205 


enigma  for  him  and  for  us.  But  it  is  not  so  in  fact  ‘‘  God 
speaks,  but  it  is  not'’ — I quote  the  words,  or  nearly  the 
words,  of  a recent  and  excellent  English  commentator — “it 
is  not  to  say,  Let  there  be  light,  where  all  was  darkness  ; ” 
and  when  He  has  spoken,  you  and  I must  close  the  book  with 
the  sense  that  the  question  of  questions,  as  it  seems  to  us, 
has  received  no  full,  entire,  adequate  solution.  What  is  the 
answer  that  Job  receives  in  reply  to  his  repeated,  his 
clamorous,  appeals  that  God  would  speak  to  him  ? In  the 
first  place,  it  is  much  to  him  that  his  appeal  is  answered  at 
all.  As  he  hears  the  words,  ‘‘  Gird  up  thy  loins  like  a man, 
for  I will  demand  of  thee,  and  answer  thou  Me,”  he  feels 
at  least  that  he  is  no  longer  forsaken  of  his  ancient  Friend  ; 
he  is  no  longer  left  alone  in  a world  ruled  by  evil  or  ruled 
by  chance.  And  what  next  ? He  is  asked  the  solution  of 
one  riddle — his  own  hard  destiny.  “ Can,”  he  says,  “ that 
Voice  read  other  mysteries  ? Is  this  the  only  dark  spot  in  a 
world  radiant  and  transparent  elsewhere  with  light  ? or  is  he 
not  rather  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  clouds  which  he  can- 
not pierce,  riddles  which  he  cannot  read  ? He  has  darkened 
counsel — that  is,  misread  God’s  designs  by  words  without 
knowledge  on  one  point.  Can  he  read  the  mysteries  of  the 
universe,  of  creation,  of  all  the  varied  forms  of  life,  fair  or 
monstrous,  that  swarm  around  him  ? Can  he,”  he  is  asked 
later  on,  “abase  the  proud,  tread  down  the  wicked  ? Has 
he  penetrated  into  the  secrets  of  the  government  of  the 
world,  and  seated  himself  in  the  centre  of  the  great  forces 
that  rule  the  distribution  of  good  and  of  evil  ? Or  is  he 
not  rather  weak  and  ignorant,  able  to  read  only  a fragment 
of  the  mighty  laws  which  shape  alike  the  courses  of  the 
stars  and  the  destinies  of  mankind  ” 

Such  seems  the  substance  of  the  answer  that  he  receives, 
when  we  strip  it  of  its  noble  scenery  and  its  splendid  illus- 
trations, Let  us  glance  at  it  more  closely  for  a moment. 
Job  is  called  on  to  consider  the  greatness,  the  immensity 
of  nature;  not,  I need  scarcely  say,  of  the  forces,  as  we  call 
them,  of  nature,  as  seen  and  interpreted  with  modern  eyes, 
but  still  of  the  awful  and  overpowering  phenomena  of  nature 
and  of  life  as  they  were  revealed  to  Job.  He  is  carried 
back  to  the  regions  of  earth  and  sea  and  light,  and  with 
each  question  comes,  as  it  were,  a lightning  flash  of  poetic 
beauty.  We  hear  the  angelic  host,  the  morning  stars,  the 


2o6 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


stars  of  dawn,  fitly  hailing  the  dawn  of  life  in  a new-born 
world,  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together  and  all  the 
sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy;”  or  the  wild  and  capricious 
sea  subjected  to  law  and  order — ‘‘  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come, 
and  no  further,  and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed  ; ” 
or  we  see  the  sudden  sunrise  in  a land  of  briefest  twilight 
flash  on  the  dark  earth,  and  its  scenery,  coming  out  sharp 
and  clear,  as  the  shapeless  clay  receives  the  impress  of  a 
seal.  The  sunshine  even  there  hath  a glorious  birth. 

Where  wast  thou,”  said  the  Voice,  “when  these  things  had 
their  birth } ” and  then  his  brain  is,  as  it  were,  made  dizzy 
by  challenges  to  penetrate,  now  the  homes  of  light  and  of 
darkness ; now  the  regions  of  stored  and  accumulated 
snows  ; now  the  clouds  feeding  here  the  streams  that,  swift 
or  slow,  mould  the  mountains  and  shape  the  earth,  now 
falling  on  the  broad  desert  steppes  in  beneficent  and  fertilis- 
ing rain  ; now  the  realms  of  ice,  the  frozen  seas  ; now  the 
majestic  heavens  and  the  laws  that  move  the  stars.  “ Where 
is  thy  hand  ? what  is  thy  knowledge  among  these  things  } ” 
he  is  asked. 

And  then  he — and  Job,  remember,  is  here  the  type  of 
all  our  race,  though  the  language  used  to  him  is  couched 
of  course  in  a form  suited  to  his  day  and  generation — is 
bidden  to  look  upon  the  forms  of  wild,  untamed,  untame- 
able  life  that  filled  in  those  early  days  so  vast  a portion 
of  the  earth’s  surface.  He  is  called  to  look  upon  those 
kingly  lions  that  needed  not  the  aid  of  man  ; on  the  wild 
ravens  whose  cry,  to  the  poet’s  ear,  went  up  as  a very 
prayer  to  the  Father  of  all  life  ; and  the  rock  goats  and  the 
wild  ass,  creatures  so  strong,  so  vigorous,  so  rude,  so  free, 
rejoicing  in  a noble  liberty,  scorning,  he  is  told,  the  multi- 
tudes of  the  city,  neither  regarding  the  cry  of  the  driver ; 
then  on  the  mighty  and  primeval  buffalo,  unfortunately 
rendered  by  the  meaningless  heraldic  unicorn,  whom  none 
can  train  to  draw  the  plough,  none  force  to  carry  home  the 
garnered  wheat ; then  the  sullen  ostrich,  so  dull  to  natural 
feeling,  so  hardened  against  her  young  ones,  yet  able  to 
put  to  scorn  the  steed  and  its  rider.  Then  the  words, 
“ Hast  thou  given  the  horse  strength  } Hast  thou  clothed 
his  neck  with  thunder.^”  usher  in  the  stirring,  the  splendid 
description  of  the  horse,  not  as  with  the  Greek  poet,  the 
servant  of  man,  but  in  the  form  known  to  Hebrew  or  Arab 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


207 


or  Egyptian,  as  the  fiery,  neighing,  snorting  warhorse  of 
the  Arabians,  '' who  saith  among  the  trumpets,  Ha,  Ha! 
who  smelleth  the  battle  afar  off/’  And  the  list  of  pictures 
which  began  with  the  king  of  beasts  ends  with  that  of  the 
queen  of  birds,  who  builds  her  nest  upon  the  rock,  upon  the 
crags  of  the  rocks,  her  young  ones  also  suck  her  blood, 
and  where  the  slain  ones  are  there  is  she  ; and  once  more, 
after  a few  simple  words  from  Job,  there  follow,  too,  ela- 
borate pictures  of  monstrous  untameable  creatures,  the 
behemoth  and  the  leviathan,  the  hippopotamus  and  the 
crocodile  of  the  sea-like  river  of  Egypt. 

The  language,  we  all  feel,  if  we  read  it,  reaches  the  very 
high-water  mark  of  poetic  beauty.  Nothing  in  the  world 
can  excel  its  dignity,  its  force,  its  majesty,  or  the  freshness 
of  its  pictures  of  nature  and  of  life.  But  what  next  ? we  ask. 
No  answer,  we  may  say  here,  to  Job’s  agonized  question- 
ings, no  answer  to  the  sore  riddles  and  problems  of  life 
which  still  vex  ourselves.  Quite  true.  There  is  at  least 
no  direct  answer  at  all.  Even  those  partial  answers  which 
have  been  touched  on  from  time  to  time  by  speaker  after 
speaker,  are  not  glanced  at  in  those  final  words.  It  is  as 
though  the  voice  of  God  did  not  care  to  repeat  that  His 
power  works  on  the  side  of  righteousness.  He  only  hints 
it.  Nor  does  He  enforce,  but  leaves  for  the  present  where 
it  stands,  the  undying  truth,  already  mooted  in  this  book, 
that  sorrow  does  its  best  work  when  it  purifies  and  raises 
the  human  soul  ; nor  is  any  light  thrown  on  that  faint  and 
feeble  glimmer  of  hope,  that  streak  of  light  not  yet  fully 
born  into  the  world,  of  a life  beyond  the  grave,  where  there 
shall  be  no  more  sorrow  and  sighing,  where  Rachel  and  her 
lost  children.  Job  and  his  lost  sons  and  daughters,  shall  be 
once  more  reunited.  The  thoughts  that  we  should  have 
most  looked  for  are  not  here. 

One  other  thought  and  one  only  is  brought  forward  into 
the  foreground,  one  lesson  ; it  is  this  : The  world  is  full  of 
mysteries,  strange,  unapproachable,  overpowering,  insoluble, 
that  we  cannot  read.  Trust,  trust,  in  the  power,  in  the 
wisdom,  in  the  goodness  of  Him  who  rules  it.  Turn  from 
the  problem  of  your  own  destiny  ; good  men  have  said 
their  best,  wise  men  have  said  their  wisest ; we  are  still  left 
to  bear  the  discipline  of  questions  too  hard  for  us  to  solve. 
We  cannot  answer  them.  Turn  to  the  belief  that  all  is 


2o8 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


good,  all  is  wise,  and  that  one  day,  not  here,  the  riddle  will 
be  read  ; that  behind  the  veil  which  we  cannot  pierce  lies 
its  solution  in  the  hands  of  God. 

And  yet,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  to  Job  this  answer, 
which  may  appear  to  many  so  inadequate,  was  ample  and 
sufficient. 

It  was  much,  as  I said  before,  that  God  had  answered 
him  ; and  his  tortured  heart  is  calmed,  and  he  turns  trust- 
fully to  his  Answerer.  “ I know,”  he  says,  “ that  Thou  art 
Lord  of  all,  and  knowest  all  wisdom.  I have  uttered  things 
beyond  my  knowledge.  I know  Thee  better  now.  I feel 
Thee  nearer  to  me  ; mine  eye  seems  to  see  Thee.  Before 
it  was  only  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  and  to  know  Thee  here 
and  by  me  is  all  I need.  I have  misjudged  Thee.  I repent 
my  rash  words,”  he  says  ; “ do  Thou  forgive  them.”  And 
Job  is  reconciled  to  his  God,  and  his  friends  are  censured. 
All  the  truths,  the  many  truths  in  what  they  had  said,  did 
not  compensate  for  their  hasty,  their  coarse,  we  may  call  it, 
and  ill-judged  application  of  these  truths  to  God’s  afflicted 
servant.  And  Jobs  wild  words  and  audacious  questionings 
are  freely  forgiven  for  the  sake  of  his  firm  conviction  that 
righteousness  and  mercy  were,  and  must  be,  dear  to  God  ; 
that  if  under  any  pretext  or  under  any  system  they  were 
not  dear  to  God,  it  would  be  a hideous  universe  under  an 
unjust  master ; for  it  is  after  all  by  goodness,  and  in 
virtue  of  goodness,  that  God  is  God.  Is  it  not  so,  that  if 
God  were  not  good,  not  all  power,  not  all  wisdom,  would 
make  him  God  t 

“Ye  have  not  spoken  of  Me,”  says  that  God,  “the  thing 
that  is  right,  like  My  servant  Job;”  for  even  when  he 
seemed  to  assail  his  Divine  Friend,  he  was  pleading  for  His 
unchangeable.  His  dearest  attributes  of  justice  and  of  good- 
ness. And  God’s  unfailing  love  for  His  afflicted  servant, 
over  whom  His  heart  had  yearned  in  all  his  sufferings  and 
in  all  his  outcries,  and  not  less  in  all  his  doubts,  is  shown 
by  his  renewed  prosperity,  of  which  we  read  at  the  end — 
restored  life,  greater  riches,  other  sons  and  daughters, 
other  friends,  honoured  and  lengthened  days.  By  all  the 
accumulated  conditions  of  human  happiness,  the  Lord 
blessed  the  latter  end  of  Job  more  than  the  beginning. 

These  things,  as  I said  before,  prove  God’s  love  for  one 
who  had  suffered  much,  and  they  do  something  also  to  re- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


209 


lieve  the  tension,  the  pang  that  we  should  all  have  felt  at 
Job  being  left  to  die,  whether  in  resignation,  or  in  patience, 
or  in  sadness  on  his  dunghill.  But  they  do  not,  we  all  feel, 
undo  his  sufferings.  The  lost  child  does  not  come  back  ; 
“ the  vanished  hand,”  the  voice  that  is  still,”  are  not,  and 
were  not  to  be  replaced  ; and  the  world  is  full  of  instances 
where  the  clouds  and  shadows  of  life  are  not  followed  by 
such  countervailing  sunshine.  Hence,  it  is,  perhaps,  that 
in  the  very  ancient  version  of  the  book  which  formed  for  a 
very  large  portion  of  the  Jewish  race  even  in  our  Lord’s 
day  their  authorised  version  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  find 
averse  added  in  quite  another  key  and  by  a later  hand.  It 
is  written,  that  Job  will  rise  again  with  those  whom  the 
Lord  raiseth. 

One  word  more  before  we  part.  >We  close  the  book 
with  a sense  of  its  treasures,  not  exhausted,  of  interest  and 
beauty ; but  also,  it  may  be,  with  something  of  a natural 
disappointment  that  it  contains  no  direct,  complete,  and 
cheering  answer  to  questions  against  which  the  human 
soul  has  beaten  itself  from  Job’s  days  to  ours.  It  stirs, 
if  we  choose  to  say  so,  great  doubts  that  it  does  not 
answer.  We  see  Job,  as  it  were,  led  to  the  verge  of  a 
sea-shore ; a great  and  limitless  and  pathless  ocean  which 
he  cannot  pass  is  before  him  ; he  can  go  no  further,  see 
but  a little  way  on  ; he  must  rest  where  he  is  and  trust. 
All  that  he  is  told  is,  that  God  most  surely  loved  him  ; 
that  He  will  not  answer  his  eager  and  passionate  questions, 
but  that  through  them  all,  and  in  spite  of  them  all,  he 
is  dear  to  Him  because  he  had  loved  righteousness  and 
hated  iniquity,  and  that  for  these  things  God  cares,  and 
cares  infinitely;  and  in  the  sense  of  this  and  of  God’s 
power  and  wisdom,  he  must  rest  content.  And  he  is  told 
also  that  trouble  and  affliction  do  not  prove  God’s  dis- 
pleasure ; that  the  very  heaviest,  the  most  overwhelming 
blows  may  come  from  a Maker  who  is  full  of  love  to  him 
on  whom  they  fall  ; may  come,  as  did  Job’s,  from  causes 
far  beyond  his  power  to  comprehend  or  guess,  and  that  he 
need  not  look  on  God  as  his  persecutor  or  his  enemy — not 
shrink  from  Him,  but  draw  closer  and  closer  to  Him  in 
his  trouble,  and  trust  Him  more  wholly. 

And  his  story  reminds  us  also  of  God’s  mercy  and  for- 
bearance to  those  who  are  under  sorrow  ; of  the  larger,  the 

V 


210 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


other  eyes  with  which  He  may  look  on  the  impatience,  the 
bewilderment,  the  fretfulness,  even  the  doubts  and  ques- 
tionings, of  His  servants.  The  impatience,  as  it  seems 
to  us,  of  Job  is  answered  by  the  patience  and  pitifulness 
of  Job’s  God: — The  Lord  is  very  pitiful,  and  of  tender 
mercy” — and  this,  surely,  is  much. 

The  book  marks,  as  I have  said  before,  an  era,  an  epoch, 
a stage  of  progress  in  God’s  education  of  His  people.  It 
suggests  lessons  that  must  have  been  precious  beyond 
words  to  those  who  had  been  trained  to  identify  suffering 
with  sin. 

We,  my  friends,  who  have  long  left  behind  us  that  simple 
answer  to  life’s  hard  problem  which  satisfied  Job’s  friends, 
and  well-nigh  broke  Job’s  heart,  we  feel  our  darkness  still  ; 
yet  as  we  take  our  place  by  his  side,  whether  in  his  anguish, 
or  in  his  restored  brightness  of  life,  we  feel  that  we  have 
light  given  to-  us  which  was  denied  to  him.  The  whole 
revelation  of  the  Christian  life,  of  the  life  of  Christ,  the 
upward  course,  the  forward  course,  of  One  who  was  despised 
and  humiliated  and  scourged  and  slain,  ‘‘  made  perfect 
through  suffering,”  has  brought  a new  ideal  into  the  world 
like  vernal  airs  on  to  a frozen  soil, — something  which  the 
age  of  Job  could  hardly  have  conceived  of,  and  which  the 
Jewish  nation  later  on  steadfastly  rejected.  It  has  leavened 
race  after  race  with  the  sense  that  the  highest,  the  divinest 
life,  may  be  compatible  with  sorrow,  and  rests  upon  pain 
and  self-sacrifice.  How  many  thousands  has  it  taught  that 
the  truest  use  of  pain  is  to  brace  us  to  do  work  for  God 
and  man  ! And  even  as  the  life  of  Christ  would  be  mean- 
ingless if  the  other  world  of  which  He  spoke  were  a mere 
delusion  ; if  God,  whose  nature  He  reveals  to  us,  had 
suffered  His  Holy  One  to  see  corruption  and  final  extinc- 
tion, so  to  us  these  difficulties  and  mysteries  are  inseparably 
linked  with  the  sense,  not  only  of  God’s  undying  love  for 
the  human  race,  but  with  the  hope  which  in  that  love  He 
holds  out  to  us  of  another  and  a larger  and  an  unseen 
world,  of  a greater  dispensation,  of  which  this  life’s  puzzles 
and  wounds  are  only  a part.  Even  as  it  is,  prophets  and 
kings  and  patriarchs  have  desired  to  see  even  the  truths 
that  we  see  so  dimly,  and  have  not  seen  them,  and  we,  too, 
must  be  content  to  look  forward  for  larger  light.  What 
I do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter.” 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


2II 


Meanwhile,  we  must  repose  in  the  sense  of  God’s  love  and 
goodness,  as  in  that  of  His  power  and  v/isdom. 


G.  G.  B. 


XXV.  The  Second  Psalm.  Psalm  ii.  ^^Why  do  the 
heathen  rage,  and  the  people  imagine  a vain  thing  ? The  kings 
of  the  earthy  etcP 

I PURPOSE  to  deal  with  the  whole  of  this  psalm.  The 
1st  and  this  2nd  psalm  form  a kind  of  prelude  to  the  whole 
of  the  Psalter,  and  taken  together,  contain  the  two  tones 
to  which  the  rest  give  voice.  The  two  great  ideas  of  the 
Old  Testament  considered  as  revelation  are : first.  Law  ; 
second,  Prophecy.  The  two  elements  of  the  Old  Testament 
religion  then  are  : first,  loving  obedience  to  the  law  ; second, 
faithful  anticipation  of  the  prophecies.  And  the  ist  psalm 
deals  with  the  picture  of  the  good  man,  and  the  bad  man, 
in  their  attitude  respectively  to  the  law  of  God  ; while  this 
2nd  psalm,  with  the  other  great  element  of  Old  Testa- 
ment revelation — the  Old  Testament  religion,  with  the 
great  promises  that  men  were  called  upon  to  trust ; and 
sets  forth  the  antagonism  and  opposition  which  rages  upon 
earth  against  God,  and  the  firm  purpose  of  the  unalterable 
Will,  which  sets  its  ‘‘  King  upon  the  holy  hill  of  Zion.”  So 
the  two  psalms  together  fitly  stand  as  preface  and  intro- 
duction to  the  whole  of  the  Psalter,  and  sound  the  tones 
which  are  ever  echoing  throughout  its  whole  range.  I 
must  necessarily  deal  with  it  superficially  and  briefly  here, 
and  must,  therefore,  put  the  general  case  of  it,  rather  than 
any  specific  portion  of  it. 

You  will  see  that  it  falls  very  artistically  and  regularly 
into  four  very  distinct  parts,  vividly  separate  from  each 
other.  First  of  all,  in  the  first  three  verses  the  picture  of 
the  hurry  and  bustle  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  rebels  down 
here  upon  earth.  And  then  there  comes  crashing  into  the 
midst  of  that,  in  the  next  three  verses,  the  contemptuous 
ease  with  which  the  fixed  Divine  purpose  crushes  all  that 
swarming  bustle  of  the  little  ant-hill  down  below.  And 
then  there  comes  into  the  next  three  verses,  breaking  into 
the  very  middle  of  this,  the  first  attestation  of  the  Divine 
King.  And  then  there  comes  the  psalmist  himself,  or  the 


212 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


prophet  himself,  speaking,  in  the  final  triad  of  verses,  the 
summons  to  surrender.  First  of  all  then,  we  get,  what  I 
have  ventured  to  call  the  picture  of  the  futile  conspiracy 
of  the  busy  rebels  down  below  there.  The  psalmist,  the 
seer,  has  before  him  the  picture.  He  does  not  describe  it, 
but  with  true  artistic  and  dramatic  power  he  brings  forth 
the  question  : Why  do  the  heathen  rage  ''  and  band  them- 

selves together.  Why  do  they  mutter  and  meditate  a vain 
thing.  The  kings  of  the  earth,  and  people  and  the  rulers 
taking  counsel  together.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this 
universal  laying  of  their  heads  together,  all  bending  them- 
selves and  whispering,  and  setting  themselves  in  antago- 
nism, and  consulting  for  a thing  of  naught  against  the 
Lord  and  against  His  anointed  ? So  he  sees  the  whole  of 
the  conspiracy  hatching,  the  eager  antagonism  which  is 
being  developed,  in  which  all  classes  and  all  ranks  unite, 
and  that  it  has  all  no  reason,  no  issue.  What  are  they 
doing  it  for.?  There  is  no  ground  for  it.  To  what  end  are 
they  doing  it .?  It  is  a vain  thing.  It  will  go  up  in  smoke, 
and  all  come  to  nothing.  The  conspiracy  against  the 
dominion,  which  is  not  twofold,  but  one — the  Lord  and  His 
Anointed — the  dominion  of  the  Jehovah  exercised  through 
His  Son,  saying,  “ Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder,  and 
cast  away  their  cords  from  us.’’  So  they  are  rebels,  and 
their  opposition  is  rebellion  ; and  they  are  attempting  to 
shake  off  the  yoke  which  exists,  to  get  to  a freedom  which 
they  do  not  now  possess.  These  are  the  outlines  of  this 
chapter  : first,  the  antagonism  of  the  kingdom  of  God  as 
against  the  existing  kingdom.  That  is  to  say,  you  and  I, — 
by  His  love.  His  mercy.  His  sweetness.  His  goodness,  His 
grace,  by  His  Christ,  and  by  His  passion, — we  have  been 
made  the  subjects  of  His  loving  realm  ; and  for  us  to  lift 
up  our  puny  wills  in  opposition  to  that  great  throne  and 
Sovereign  Will,  is  not  merely  warfare,  but  revolt ; not  merely 
opposition,  but  rebellion.  And  then,  the  other  two  points 
upon  which  I do  not  touch,  but  simply  mention,  are  these  : 
this  antagonism,  every  single  act  of  opposition  between  my 
will  and  God’s  will,  is,  first  of  all,  truly  absurd  and  ground- 
less ; and,  secondly,  perfectly  futile,  perfectly  vain.  It  is 
the  paradox  of  human  history,  the  one  unanswerable  ques- 
tion of  the  whole  universe — Wherefore  do  the  people  set 
themselves  against  the  Lord  ? No  reason  that  will  stand 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


213 


for  a moment  can  be  given  to  the  question,  Why  does  the 
creature  lift  itself  against  God.  No  answer  is  possible 
except  the  one  answer — Because  we  are  fools  ! Wherefore 
do  the  people  rage  ? The  existence  of  evil,  the  existence 
of  sin,  my  opposition,  is  the  unanswerable  mystery  of  all 
human  history ; the  one  standing  puzzle  of  the  whole 
universe  is  the  possibility  of  antagonism,  and  still  more 
the  reality.  There  is  nothing  so  strangely  unreasonable  in 
the  whole  history  of  man,  as  man  setting  himself  against 
God.  The  other  thought  also,  is  vehemently  expressed 
in  this  first  picture ; that  not  only  is  this  antagonism 
wanting  in  all  basis  and  reasonable  explanation,  so  that 
it  can  never  be  reconciled  with  common  sense  ; but  also 
it  is  wanting  in  all  issue  ; it  will  all  come  to  nothing. 
They  set  themselves  and  band  themselves  together,  and 
according  to  the  vivid  saying  of  the  old  hymn  triumphal. 
The  Lord,  the  Lord  did  blow  upon  them,  and  they  were 
scattered,  they  sank,  etc.”  We  may  hurt  ourselves,  we 
may  rob  ourselves  of  the  sweetness  of  entering  into 
His  will  and  finding  rest,  but  we  can  make  no  impres- 
sion upon  that  kingdom, — “ the  people  imagine  a vain 
thing.” 

So  I come  to  the  second  stage,  the  phase  of  this 
vision  which  comes  into  the  next  three  verses,  where  in 
picturesque  and  vivid  opposition  to  the  busy  multitude 
down  in  the  world,  we  get  the  one  figure  “ He  that  sitteth 
in  the  heavens  shall  laugh,  etc.;”  “Yet  have  I set  My 
King  upon  My  holy  hill  of  Zion.”  So  there  is  something 
that  seems  very  grand  and  very  full  in  that  contrast.  On 
the  one  hand,  the  gathering  opposition,  the  whispering 
conspiracy,  the  vehement  banding  together  of  the  multi- 
tudes ; and,  on  the  other,  the  calm  King  sitting  throned 
there  in  the  heavens,  and  not  even  arising  from  His  throne, 
nor  stretching  out  His  hand,  and  meeting  it  all  with  but  a 
God-like  smile  upon  His  face,  which  means  no  favour,  but 
which  expresses  the  Divine  recognition  of  the  utter  futility 
and  nothingness  of  all  that  is  going  on  below,  the  boldness, 
the  audacity  of  the  conflict  ; and  the  very  incongruity  be- 
tween the  thoughts  of  the  rebels,  and  the  calmness  of  the 
Divine  Nature  and  such  a love  as  that,  is  intended  to 
strengthen  and  impress  not  only  the  essential  ludicrous- 
ness of  antagonism  to  His  will,  but  the  calmness  with 


214 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


which  that  Divine  power  contemplates  it  all.  And  then 
notice,  that  just  as  the  climax  of  the  conspiracy  was  given 
us  by  the  quotation  of  the  whispered  words  that  were 
passed  from  lip  to  lip  amongst  the  rebels,  so  the  climax  of 
the  Divine  calm  antagonism  is  given  by  the  quotation  of 
the  Divine  words,  “Yet  have  I set  My  King  upon  My 
holy  hill  of  Zion.’’  That  is  to  say,  to  put  it  into  more 
abstract  words,  the  one  weapon  of  antagonism  to  all  that 
human  opposition  to  the  Divine  kingdom,  is  only,  the 
Word — the  Word  of  God — the  utterance  of  His  Will. 
That  is  all  that  is  needed  to  crush  it  into  nothingness.  I 
need  not,  then,  notice  the  thought,  what  tremendous  force 
there  is  put  against  the  busy  multitudes, — the  one  single 
Personality.  And  what  a power  and  grandeur  there  is  in 
the  “yet  /” — we  can  easily  fill  up.the  ellipsis.  “ I ” have 
set  My  King,  in  spite  of  all  the  opposition,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  antagonism,  yet  /”  have  set  My  King.  That 
is  to  say,  one  Divine  purpose,  one  sovereign  Divine  pur- 
pose, stands  there  erect,  and  the  antagonism  of  men,  and 
of  kingdoms,  of  individuals,  of  social  systems,  of  schools  of 
thought,  of  forms  of  life,  and  of  the  world  in  all  its  varied 
forms,  hurled  against  that  rocky  purpose,  is  broken  up 
into  feathery  spray,  and  falls  back  into  the  tossing  sea. 
There  stands  the  throne,  one  great  hand  holds  it  up,  and 
the  only  answer  that  is  given  to  all  the  conspiracy  heat 
and  enmity  is,  “ I ” have  set  My  King  upon  My  holy  hill 
of  Zion. 

And  so,  still  further,  look  now  for  a moment  at  the  third 
phase  here.  We  get  next,  coming  in  with  startling  sudden- 
ness, without  prelude,  we  get  another  voice  speaking,  the 
voice  of  the  King  seated  upon  the  holy  hill, — what  I may 
call  the  self-attestation  of  the  King.  “ I will  declare  the 
decree : the  Lord  hath  said  unto  Me,  Thou  art  My  Son  ; 
this  day  have  I begotten  Thee.  Ask  of  Me,  and  I shall  give 
Thee  the  heathen  for  Thine  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth  for  Thy  possession.”  So  suppose  the 
King  set  upon  the  holy  hill  of  Zion  ; and  I am  not  going 
to  enter  into  the  question  whether  the  words  of  it  may 
have  applied  to  some  historical  king  of  Israel — whether 
it  be  so  or  not,  does  not  matter,  in  my  judgment,  to  the 
truly  pure  Messianic  character  of  the  psalm.  There  is  the 
great  promise  to  the  house  of  David,  which  is  so  often 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


215 


heard  of  in  the  psalms,  which  is,  in  fact,  but  a version  and 
explanation  of  that  great  promise  which  applies  simply  to 
Jesus  Christ  Himself.  So  let  me  just  try  to  bring  out  the 
three  great  main  ideas  which  lie  here  in  the  self-attestation. 
There  is  first  of  all  Sonship.  If  you  go  back  to  the 
original  passage  in  the  Book  of  Samuel,  you  will  find 
there  the  conception  of  the  day  of  the  Son’s  birth  does  not 
mean  the  beginning  of  the  man’s  life,  but  the  day  of  the 
coronation  of  the  King  ; the  day  of  His  entrance  into  His 
Kingdom  ; the  day  of  His  birth  in  reality  is  exactly  the 
day  of  His  resurrection  from  the  dead.  Turn  to  the  thir- 
teenth of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  you  will  find  that 
Paul  quotes  the  words  of  my  text  as  having  a distinct 
bearing  upon  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord  ; and  so  what  I 
want  to  fix  upon  for  one  moment  is,  that  the  sonship  whicn 
is  here  set  forth  is  our  Lord’s  exaltation  in  His  humanity 
by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  and  the  visible  and 
manifest  dominion  in  His  human  nature  over  earth  and 
hell.  We  do  not  sufficiently  remember  that  when  Chrisi: 
rose  from  the  dead  He  arose  with  His  human  body,  and 
His  human  nature  was  lifted  to  the  royalty  of  the  universe. 
And  that  is  that  which  is  here  specially  referred  to. 

The  next  point  is,  the  universal  and  the  delegated 
dominion:  ^'Ask  of  Me,  and  I shall  give  Thee  the 
heathen  for  Thine  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth  for  Thy  possession.”  That  is  a world  too  wide 
for  any  human  monarch  that  ever  reigned,  or  ever  could 
hope  to  reign,  over  the  little  strip  of  sea-board  on  the 
Mediterranean  ; and  yet  here  is  the  Divine,  not  the  univer- 
sal, monarchy  received  from  the  Father.  That  is  to  say, 
Christ’s  reign  and  God’s  reign.  Christ’s  reign — delegated 
dominion  that  is  vested  upon  Him.  And  these  words  are 
the  last  words  that  He  Himself  spoke  : “ All  power  is 
given  to  Me  upon  earth,  go  ye  and  preach,  etc.” 

The  last  point  is  the  destructive  energy  of  this  great 
King  ; “ Thou  shalt  break  them  with  a rod  of  iron  ; Thou 
shalt  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a potter’s  vessel.”  “ Ay,” 
people  say,  “ that  is  the  Old  Testament  idea  of  a vengeful 
and  warlike  king.”  It  is  the  idea  of  the  King  that  smites, 
and  that  is  Old  Testament,  and  it  is  New  Testament,  too. 
Do  not  let  us  forget  that  the  difference  between  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  is  not  that  the  New  weakens  or 


2i6  expository  sermons  and  outlines 


reverses  the  Old,  but  that  it  adds  another  thought  to  it, 
leaving  the  Old  intact,  but  completing  and  supplementing 
it  by  another.  Christ  the  King  is  the  King  whose  mission 
it  is  to  break  and  dash  in  pieces  as  well  as  to  complete  and 
build  up.  Thank  God  that  it  is  so.  There  are  plenty  of 
things  in  this  world  that  cannot  be  sanctified,  and  there- 
fore must  be  altered.  The  task  is,  to  break  and  bring  to 
naught  that  which  obstinately  and  ultimately  sets  kself 
against  Him.  Therefore  we  rejoice  that  sin, — social,  poli- 
tical and  individual  evils,  are  all  to  be  crushed  and 
broken  by  the  iron  sceptre  of  the  Universal  King.  Lift 
up  your  heads,  redemption  draweth  nigh,  and  the  ancient 
tyrannies — blood-cemented — that  have  been  builded  up 
through  all  the  generations  of  the  earth,  are  tottering  to 
their  fall.  And  so  there  comes  the  final  word,  the  sum- 
mons to  surrender : Be  wise  now  therefore,  O ye  kings  ’’ 

— things  being  so — and  ‘‘  be  instructed,  O ye  judges  of  the 
earth.’'  All  opposition  is  folly.  Wisdom  points  to  sur- 
render, and  that  surrender  is  twofold  ; one  in  reference  to 
the  Lord,  and  one  in  reference  to  the  Anointed.  “ Serve 
the  Lord  with  fear,  and  rejoice  with  trembling.  Kiss  the 
Son.”  And,  though  I do  not  think  that  anything  doctrinal 
depends  upon  it,  I take  it  we  have  to  read  here,  as  our 
Bible  has  it,  Do  homage  to  that  Son  lest  He  be  angry, 
for  His  wrath  is  swiftly  kindled.”  And  then  after  that 
solemn  warning — beautiful  and  tender — how  wonderfully 
the  whole  psalm  rises  to  another  height,  Blessed  are  all 
ye  that  put  your  trust  in  Him.”  The  religious  emotions 
of  faith  and  confidence  which  in  the  Old  Testament  be- 
long to  Jehovah,  are  transferred  to  that  Anointed.  And 
so  the  iron  sceptre  and  the  dominion  are  all  explained,  or 
rather  elevated  into  a higher  region,  and  we  can  trust  the 
love,  and  nestle  close  to  it,  and  enter  with  glad  submission 
into  the  dominion  of  the  King,  and  find  that  they  that 
trust  Him  need  never  to  know  the  weight  of  His  iron 
sceptre  and  the  terror  of  His  wrath.  Brother,  let  us  crown 
Him  King  in  our  lives,  as  well  as  share  with  Him  in  His 
monarchy  and  His  rest. 


A.  M. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


2iy 


XXVI.  The  Preaching  of  King  David  in  the 
Psalms.  Psalm  xxvii.  8.  “J/y  /learf  hath  talked  of 
Thee,  seek  ye  My  face  ; Thy  face,  Lord,  will  I seekT  Psalm 
xxxvi.  I.  “ My  heart  showeth  me  the  wickedness  of  the 
ungodly  T 

I SUPPOSE  that,  if  any  of  us  were  asked,  from  which  of  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  he  had  learned  the  most 
about  his  own  heart,  about  the  nature  of  sin,  its  effects  and 
cure,  about  the  faithfulness  and  forgivingness  of  God,  he 
would  answer  without  hesitation  that  it  was  from  the 
Psalms.  No  book  of  the  Old  Testament  has  had  really 
half  as  much  influence  upon  the  religious  thought  of  the 
world  as  this  most  wonderful  collection  of  the  spiritual 
songs  of  Israel.  And  that,  not  only  because  for  nearly 
three  thousand  years  the  voice  of  prayer  and  praise  has 
gone  up  to  God  from  the  dwellings  of  the  righteous,  articu- 
lated in  these  forms,  first  in  the  Jewish  Church  and  then  in 
the  Christian  Church  ; not  only  because  in  ages,  in  which 
all  or  nearly  all  the  other  books  of  the  Bible  were  in  a 
measure  sealed  up  in  strange  tongues,  this  book  was  made 
familiar  and  put  into  the  hands  of  all  who  learned  to  pray ; 
not  only  because  by  reason  of  this  use,  the  psalms  may  be 
said  to  have  moulded  religious  thought  itself,  and  not 
merely  expressed  it  ; to  have  led  man  to  the  footstool  of 
the  Most  High  as  well  as  placed  words  in  his  mouth  when 
he  reached  it  ; the  cause  is  deeper  still,  and  the  words  are 
found  to  fit  in  with  the  case  of  the  man  who  is  just  turning 
to  God,  as  well  as  with  his  who  has  set  God  always  before 
him.  It  is  surely  because  is  there  a revelation  in  them  of 
the  heart  of  man  to  itself,  a glimpse,  seen  as  God  sees  it, 
of  what  is  in  the  heart  of  the  sinner,  the  penitent,  and  the 
saint.  And  is  not  this  as  great  a wonder  as  any  of  the 
other  miracles  of  inspiration?  For,  taking  the  Psalms  of 
David  alone,  and  excluding  from  the  list  all  that  either 
ancient  tradition  or  modern  criticism  claims  for  other  ages 
and  other  writers,  setting  aside  the  direct  prophecies  of  the 
Messianic  Psalms,  and  even  those  utterances  which  we  are 
justified  by  our  Lord’s  own  application  of  them  in  believing 
to  be  prophetic,  and  to  contain  prophetic  reference  by  type 
and  shadow  to  his  own  work,  his  sufferings,  and  exaltation. 


2i8 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


there  is  enough  in  what  we  may  call  the  experimental 
psalms  to  deserve  the  name  of  a miracle  of  inspiration. 
They  at  least  are  David's  ; the  words  of  the  sweet  singer 
of  Israel. 

And  then  when  we  look  again  on  David  himself,  they 
are  yet  more  wonderful.  What  was  there  in  his  lot,  in 
even  his  varied  history,  in  the  condition  of  his  age,  in  the 
society  in  which  he  lived,  to  suggest  such  thoughts } A 
shepherd  boy,  a royal  favourite,  a banished  man,  outcast 
and  fugitive,  a rising  prince,  at  the  last  a mighty,  compara- 
tively powerful,  king  ; a great  offender  against  laws  human 
and  divine,  a great  penitent,  humbled  by  trouble  and  shame 
and  by  the  sins  and  shame  of  his  children,  at  last  restored 
to  good  conscience  and  peace,  and  dying  in  old  age,  dis- 
quieted still  by  domestic  alarms,  and  outliving  mental  and 
physical  strength.  In  all  this  there  is  variety  of  experience, 
it  is  true  ; but  of  what  experience  ? Of  a state  of  society 
most  difficult  for  us  to  realize ; perhaps  more  like  that  of  a 
modern  chieftain  of  some  wandering  Asiatic  tribe  than  of  a 
Christian  prince  ; the  companion  of  rude,  rough,  cruel  men, 
standing  on  a border  line  between  ancient  and  most 
corrupt  civilizations,  such  as  those  of  Egypt  and  Assyria, 
and  an  absolutely  wild  shepherd-life  like  that  of  the  nomad 
races  which  people  the  same  border  lands  to  this  day  ; in- 
heriting the  prophecies  and  traditions  of  Moses  and  the 
priesthood  and  the  tabernacle,  and  a conviction,  in  itself 
exceptional  and  miraculous,  of  the  destiny  of  the  people; — 
but  how  little  more,  and  how  little  at  all  and  altogether, 
unless  that  conviction  be  regarded  as  itself  a miracle.  Yet 
this  wild,  wanton,  ruthless  chieftain,  not  less  than  his 
fellows  a man  of  blood,  a rough  man,  impulsive,  hasty, 
generous,  thoughtless,  a very  Esau,  a very  Ishmael,  is  the 
teacher  of  self-knowledge  to  all  the  world;  to  the  Jew  of 
the  kingdom,  the  cultivated  and  civilized  philosophers  of 
the  age  of  Solomon,  to  the  long  generations  of  ritual- 
worshippers  in  the  temple  that  he  had  not  been  holy 
enough  to  build.  That  is  conceivable  ; we  can  look  on  him 
as  a great  educator  of  his  nation  with  awe  but  without 
astonishment  ; but  when  we  look  farther  ahead,  and  into 
the  Christian  ages,  and  into  the  spiritual  city  and  kingdom 
of  which  he  could  have  known  only  by  revelation  of  God  ; 
and  for  whose  citizens  he,  singing  a thousand  years  before. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


219 


prepared  a body  of  spiritual  thoughts  which  seem  to  be- 
come the  spontaneous  language  of  the  redeemed  people  ; 
when  we  look  on  to  the  far  regions  which  contain  so  little 
of  the  forms  that  mould  the  imagery  of  the  pastoral  poetry 
of  Judah,  to  the  civilizations  that  pride  themselves  on 
having  cast  away  all  that  is  old  and  barbarous,  ay  and  to 
the  opening,  widening  future  of  the  Church  in  far-off  lands, 
where  as  soon  as  the  word  is  heard  and  received,  it  calls 
forth  thoughts  and  words  that  admit  no  readier,  no  more 
perfectly  fitting  dress  than  this  ; what  say  we,  what  can  we 
say,  but  this  is  the  Lord’s  doing,  and,  much  as  we  know  of 
His  other  dealings,  accustomed  as  we  are  to  the  wonderful 
workings  of  His  hand,  here  is  an  ever  fresh  wonder,  it  is 
marvellous  in  our  eyes. 

David  is  the  great  preacher  of  the  Old  Testament,  first 
to  his  own  nation,  then  to  the  whole  world  ; ages  before 
Homer  he  sings  the  national  songs  that  mark  out  his  nation 
from  all  other  people  of  the  earth  ; ages  before  Socrates 
and  Plato  he  reveals  the  mysteries  of  self-knowledge, 
conscience,  and  immortality,  in  language  that  needs  no 
interpreter.  ‘‘David  the  son  of  Jesse  said,  and  the  man 
who  was  raised  up  on  high,  the  anointed  of  the  God  of 
Jacob,  and  the  sweet  psalmist  of  Israel  said  : The  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  spake  by  me,  and  His  word  was  in  my  tongue.” 

How  was  this,  and  how  is  it  exemplified  ? 

We  ask  the  question,  not  doubting  the  direct  action  of 
God  in  the  action  of  His  servants.  Out  of  the  mouth  of 
babes  and  sucklings  He  ordaineth  strength  ; He  chose  the 
ass  to  reprove  the  madness  of  Balaam  ; but  ordinarily  He 
allows  us  to  see  the  fitness  of  His  messenger  to  deliver  the 
message.  And  so  here.  David’s  first  and  foremost,  con- 
tinuous, characteristic  was  a sense  that  God  was  by  his  side 
and  before  him.  “ I have  set  God  always  before  me,”  he 
says  in  the  i6th  Psalm.  And  that  not  only  in  that  he 
trusted  in  Him  as  a defender,  although  that  profound  con- 
viction is  the  key-note  of  many  of  the  psalms,  and  makes 
us  look  on  David’s  whole  career  as  one  great  lesson  of  faith 
and  faithfulness  between  his  Lord  and  himself ; but  in  the 
direct  and  general  sense,  he  felt  that  he  was  living  before 
God.  Sometimes  we  think  that  all  the  people  of  whom  we 
read  in  the  Bible  share  this  characteristic,  and  that  in  this 
consists  the  main  difference  between  the  lives  of  the  men 


220 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


of  old  and  the  lives  of  the  men  of  to-day,  so  that  David 
may  be  only  a more  prominent  example  of  what  may  have 
been  a general  type.  Possibly  we  may  be  wrong  in  such  a 
generalisation,  for,  reading  God's  account  of  men's  deeds 
as  He  tells  them  in  His  Revealed  Word,  naturally  we 
come  in  some  degree  to  look  on  them  chiefly  in  their 
relation  to  Him,  and  so  regard  them  through  the  medium 
of  an  atmosphere  of  which  they  were  hardly  conscious. 

But  allowing  for  this  in  the  case  of  the  general  rule,  it 
does  not  affect  the  case  of  David,  of  whom  we  know,  from 
his  own  mouth  and  from  the  minute  record  of  the  Books  of 
Samuel;  so  much  more  than  we  know  of  the  others.  In 
every  detail  of  his  life  we  see  him  living  before  God.  It 
was  not  an  equal,  uniform,  or  consistent  life  : there  was  in 
it,  as  I said,  much  sin  and  shame,  sorrow  and  trouble,  too, 
as  well  as  success.  If  it  had  not  been  so  varied,  David 
could  scarcely  have  been  so  fit  a preacher  for  all  time. 
But,  throughout  it,  he  lives  consciously  before  his  Lord.  In 
his  troubles  he  rests  in  the  Lord  ; in  his  labour  he  works  in 
and  for  his  Lord  ; his  very  sins  present  themselves  to  his 
mind  as  sins  done  against  the  Lord,  against  the  love  of  the 
Faithful  Guardian  and  Good  Shepherd.  This,  I think,  is 
clear  and  important ; for,  if  it  is  true,  it  justifies  us  in 
regarding  David  as  one  of  the  first  and  greatest  of  our 
teachers  of  morals.  Sin  in  his  mind  is  not  so  much  an 
offence  against  law,  although  the  law  of  God  is  an  undefiled 
law  converting  the  soul,  and  although  the  law  of  God  in 
many  of  the  Psalms  is  practically  and  equivalent  for  the 
presence  of  God  or  influence  of  God  upon  the  conscience  ; 
still,  it  is  not  so  much  against  a positive  enacted  and  pub- 
lished law,  as  against  the  ever- instant  presence  of  the 
Almighty  that  he  sins.  If  he  has  forgotten  his  God’s 
presence  for  a moment  and  fallen,  a moment’s  thought 
both  brings  back  the  sense  of  it  and  brings  the  penitence 
that  the  sin*required.  It  is  not  so  much,  then,  the  notion 
that  sin  has  weakened  his  moral  nature,  or  has  involved 
offence  to  his  neighbour,  or  that  it  entails  remorse  or 
deserves  punishment,  as  that  it  is  an  offence  against  a lov- 
ing Presence.  And  I cannot  help  thinking  that  this,  which, 
as  it  marks  the  psalmist's  sense  of  sin,  more  clearly  and 
distinctly  still  marks  his  sense  of  God's  protectiomand  guid- 
ance, his  delight  in  God’s  service,  his  faith  in  justifying  God's 


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221 


ways,  his  hope,  long  and  far-reaching,  of  ends  that  God  will 
bring  about  in  due  time,  his  certain  looking  for  of  pardon 
and  rest,  and  awaking  in  the  Divine  image  ; I cannot  help 
thinking  that  this  is  one  of  the  chief  things  that  are  meant 
when  David  is  spoken  of  as  the  man  after  God's  own  heart. 
Certainly  it  cannot  mean  that  his  whole  life  was  ordered  in 
conformity  with  God's  commandments  ; that  it  assuredly 
was  not.  Holy  Scripture  itself  tells  the  story  of  many  lives 
far  more  innocent  and  holier  than  David's,  and  far  more 
like  our  Saviour’s.  On  the  other  hand  it  must  mean  more 
than  that  David  was  a chosen  instrument  in  God’s  hand 
for  performing  work  that  was  in  His  heart,  a chosen 
founder  for  the  monarchy  of  the  chosen  race,  and  a type  of 
the  royalty  of  the  Son,  the  Redeemer.  It  was  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Divine  presence,  the  continuance  in  that 
measure  of  the  law  of  liberty  that  was  imparted  to  him,  the 
ruling  desire,  not  always  prevailing,  nor  always  unthwarted, 
nor  always  absolute  and  alone,  but  still  the  ruling  desire, 
to  keep 'his  heart  right  with  his  Lord’s.  This  then,  being 
as  it  seems  the  chief  feature  of  David’s  life  as  revealed 
to  us  in  the  history,  is  the  first  of  the  great  qualities 
that  fits  him  to  preach  to  us.  It  is  not  holiness,  not 
example,  not  direct  admonition,  not  circumstantial  and 
particular  direction,  but  a profound  feeling  of  God  all 
around  him  ; the  sense  of  being  before  and  in  God. 

The  second  great  mark  is  that  which  the  opening  words 
of  the  36th  psalm  more  especially  illustrate,  the  psalmist's 
knowledge  of  the  heart  of  man  ; that,  scarcely  less  than  the 
other,  looks  like  a revelation  ; from  the  study  of  his  own 
heart,  from  the  study  of  his  heart  under  the  illumination 
of  God’s  presence,  he  has  a sympathetic  and  most  real 
knowledge  of  what  is  in  men’s  hearts.  A sympathetic 
knowledge,  I say  ; that  is  a knowledge  of  the  heart  of 
others  gained  by  knowledge  of  his  own;  of  their  desires 
learned  by  his  desires,  of  their  sins  learned  by  his  own  sins, 
of  their  self-deception  and  defiance  of  God,  learned  by 
his  own  self-deceptions  and  defiance  of  God.  I do  not  say 
that  very  much  sympathy  with  other  men's  sins  appears 
in  the  psalms  ; though  there  is  sympathy  with  penitence 
and  renewed  effort  after  purity  and  holiness  : rather  the 
psalmist  treats  sinners  as  God’s  enemies  and  his  own, 
and  there  are  denunciations  of  vengeance  that  show  far 


222 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


more  of  the  judicial  than  of  the  mediatorial  side  of  the 
dealings  of  Jesus  with  us.  The  mystery,  the  whole  mystery 
of  godliness  is  not  revealed  even  to  the  man  after  God’s' 
own  heart.  Prophets  and  kings  desired  to  see  the  things 
that  we  see,  and  did  not  see  them  ; and  to  hear  the  things 
that  we  hear,  and  did  not  hear  them.  To  bear  our  sins  and 
carry  our  sorrows  was  a depth  of  love  that  could  be  showed 
only  by  the  Saviour  Himself.  It  cost  more  than  David 
could  count  to  redeem  our  souls.  But  short  of  that  Divine 
compassion,  by  means  of  which  there  were  laid  upon  Him 
the  iniquities  of  us  all  ; short  of  that  feeling  of  our  infir- 
mity with  which  surely  none  but  the  High  Priest,  who 
Himself  was  without  infirmity,  could  be  so  touched,  there 
is  in  the  psalms  a very  distinct  realization  of  what  is  in  the 
heart  of  man.  We  read  in  them,  if  we  will  look  for  it,  an 
analysis  of  the  origin  and  development  and  full  growth  of 
men’s  sins  ; of  our  sins.  We  see  exemplified,  in  the  very 
penitential  forms  in  which  David  rehearses  his  story,  how 
lust  when  it  is  conceived  bringeth  forth  sin,  and  sin  when 
it  is  finished  bringeth  forth  death.  The  original  inclination, 
the  resistance  to  good  influences,  the  secret  growth  of  evil 
desire  ; My  heart  showeth  it  me,  the  wickedness  of  the  un- 
godly  : the  weakness  of  the  betraying  will  ; ‘‘  There  is 

no  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes  : ” the  self  deception  ; “ I 
can  go  on  up  to  a certain  point,  and  then  stop  short,  stop 
short  before  my  evil  has  taken  the  actual  form  of  sin  ; ” 
“ God  is  afar  off  and  He  will  never  see  it ; ” or  He 
is  such  a one  as  myself,  why  has  He  made  me  fit  and 
inclined  to  the  thing  I long  for,  and  then  forbid  me  to 
enjoy.  So  the  thought  dwells  on  the  thing  forbidden, 
until  it  seems  not  to  be  forbidden  : the  words  of  the 
tempter,  “Yea,  hath  God  said.  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  every  tree 
of  the  garden  ; ye  shall  not  surely  die ; ” are  echoed  in  the 
heart,  “ Tush,  the  Lord  will  not  see.”  And  then  the  sin  is 
done.  And  there  follows,  perhaps  first  a surprised  and  be- 
wildering sense  of  humiliation  ; what  a fool  I was  to  yield  : 
and  then  the  sense  of  the  loss  of  God’s  blessing ; “ Thou 
didst  turn  Thy  face  from  me  and  1 was  troubled  : ” and 
then  the  self-abhorrent  mortification,  “ I abhor  myself  and 
repent  in  dust  and  ashes  ; ” and  as  yet  perhaps  no  more  : 
for  penitence  does  not  always  in  one  impulse  complete  its 
perfect  work,  and  there  is  a sorrow  of  the  world  that 


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223 


worketh  death.  It  may  be  that  the  temptation  recurs,  and 
the  self-deception  betrays  the  soul  again,  and  the  sin  and 
the  mortification  return  again  and  again,  until  the  fear  of 
God  no  more  works  to  retard  it,  and  the  sinner  flatters 
himself  in  his  own  sight  that  God  has  forgotten  him  or 
does  not  regard  his  sin  as  sin.  And  then  comes  the 
awakening  ; for,  in  all  David's  knowledge  of  the  heart,  we 
must  remember  that  we  have  to  trace  the  record  of  the  sin 
through  the  record  of  the  penitence,  and  the  sorrow  of  the 
sinner  through  the  joy  of  the  pardoned  and  restored  child  : 
and  so  on  until  we  can  realize  the  full  meaning  of  both 
halves  of  the  51st  psalm;  “Have  mercy  upon  me,  O 
Lord,"  and  “ Thou  shalt  open  my  lips,  O Lord,  and  my 
mouth  shall  show  Thy  praise." 

He  who  would  struggle  with  temptation,  he  who  having 
fallen,  would  rise  from  his  sin,  he  who,  having  been  strength- 
ened to  rise,  wants  still  more  strength  to  stand,  to  stand 
without  presuming  and  yet  without  morbid  fear  of  another 
fall : he  who  has  awakened  to  the  misery  of  separation 
from  God  and  yet  cannot  free  himself  altogether  from 
lingering  and  longing  looks  after  the  things  that  would 
separate  him  from  Him  ; he  who  has  learned  the  wretched- 
ness of  this  state  and  has  not  yet  come  to  know  the  love, 
so  freely  bestowed,  of  Him  who  died  to  deliver  not  only 
from  the  penalty  but  from  the  nature  and  working  and 
effects  of  sin  on  the  conscience  ; he  who  is  learning  the 
virtue  of  the  great  and  only  sacrifice,  not  merely  to  save 
from  a hell  whose  torments  must  be  everywhere  where 
God  is  not — for  the  heart  that  God  made  for  Himself  can- 
not but  without  Him  breed  the  worm  undying  and  the  fire 
unquenchable  ; not  merely  to  save  from  death  eternal,  but 
to  win  wholly  the  affections,  and  to  content  the  affections 
which  if  they  are  given  to  anything  else  but  Him  must 
lead  to  death  ; to  purify  the  soul,  “ purge  me  with  hyssop 
and  I shall  be  clean,"  cleansing  the  desires  ; to  purify 
the  memory,  enabling  it  to  cast  aside  the  remembrance 
of  sin  for  all  purposes  but  to  enhance  the  love  of  the 
deliverer  ; to  purify  the  conscience,  that  it  shall  bear  true 
witness  how  the  old  things  have  passed  away,  and  all  things 
become  new  ; the  love  of  Jesus  has  won  the  heart,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  rules,  creating,  prompting,  assisting,  and  per- 
fecting the  holy  desires,  good  councils  and  just  works,  that 


224 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


as  by  new  nature  form  the  habits  of  the  new-born  : — every 
man  who  passes  through  any  or  all  of  these  experiences, 
finds  a voice  and  a guide  in  the  Psalms. 

Beloved,  David  is  the  preacher  of  all  the  phases  of  re- 
pentance. Mark  him  well  ; the  busiest  man  of  the  whole 
Bible  ; and  in  this  respect  certainly  scarcely  below  the 
greatest. 

May  He  who  has  put  the  words  of  this  Book  into  our 
hands  for  our  daily  lessons,  and  so  wonderfully  adapted 
them  to  all  the  forms  and  phases  and  stages  of  the  life  of 
our  souls,  so  open  our  hearts  that  we  may  realize  the  full 
import  of  them.  “ Open  Thou  our  lips,  O Lord,  and  our 
mouths  shall  show  forth  Thy  praise.’' 

To  have  God  always  before  us,  to  learn  the  windings  and 
waverings  of  our  own  hearts,  two  chief  points  of  the  Christ- 
ian’s safeguard  over  himself,  must  be  supplemented  still 
with  that  crowning  power  of  faith,  the  certain  conscious- 
ness that  no  self-knowledge  of  ours,  no  knowledge  even 
of  our  God,  is  enough  to  keep  us  from  falling  without  His 
constant  help.  His  perpetual  watching  and  guarding.  And 
where  can  we  find  a better  mould  and  model  for  the  thought 
that  would  rest  and  rely  wholly  on  Him,  than  in  the  words 
in  which  the  Saviour  Himself,  when  He,  in  His  own  Person, 
and  for  our  sins,  realized  on  the  cross  the  nature  and  lot 
and  offence  and  penalty  of  all  men,  found  expression  for 
His  sorrow  and  trust : “ Into  Thy  hands  I commend  My 
spirit  ; ” and  we  add,  with  the  fullest  of  full  conclusions, 
‘‘  For  Thou  hast  redeemed  me,  O Lord,  Thou  God  of 
Truth.” 

W.  S. 


XXVII.  Penitence.  Psalm  li.  5.  Behold^  Thou  desirest 
truth  in  the  inward paids : and  in  the  hidden  part  Thou  shalt 
make  me  to  know  wisdoinT 

All  sin,  as  distinguished  from  mere  error,  consists  essen- 
tially in  the  violation  of  some  dictate  of  our  conscience. 
That  is  what  it  really  comes  to  when  we  go  to  the  root  of 
it  instead  of  attempting  to  disguise  its  character  by  dwell- 
ing on  the  temptations  which  led  to  it.  But  that  dictate  of 
the  conscience  is  interpreted  in  the  Scriptures  as  the  voice 


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225 


of  the  living  God  speaking  to  us  as  person  to  person.  The 
Scriptures  draw  back  the  veil  from  the  invisible  world  and 
reveal  to  us  the  character  of  those  great  spiritual  influences 
of  which  our  hearts  and  consciences  are  sensible.  Thus 
we  learn  that  the  human  spirit  is  in  constant  union  with  the 
Divine  spirit,  and  that  in  God  we  move  and  live  and  have 
our  moral  as  well  as  physical  being.  This  is  confirmed  by 
the  deepest  moral  reflections.  It  is  this  conviction  alone 
which  exhibits  the  evil  and  taint  of  sin  to  those  who  have 
had  the  truth  brought  home  to  them. 

That  men  should  recognise  that  a living  God  is  calling 
upon  them  to  obey  His  voice,  and  to  do  His  will,  and  that 
they  should,  nevertheless,  allow  themselves  to  be  attracted 
away  to  thoughts,  and  words,  and  deeds,  which  they  know 
to  be  repugnant  to  Him,  ought  to  evoke  from  our  hearts 
contrition  like  that  of  the  psalmist : “ For  I acknowledge 
my  transgressions  : and  my  sin  is  ever  before  me.”  This 
acknowledgment  of  sin  is  the  first  step  to  repentance,  and 
the  psalmist  proceeds  to  lead  us  to  see  its  relation  to  God 
and  ourselves.  “ Against  Thee,  Thee  only,  have  I sinned, 
and  done  this  evil  in  Thy  sight  : that  Thou  mightest  be 
justified  when  Thou  speakest,  and  be  clear  when  Thou 
judgest.”  In  other  words,  if  the  expression  may  be  allowed, 
it  is  the  confession  of  God’s  justice  in  the  matter  of  our 
sins.  It  recognises  that  all  His  influence  upon  us  has 
been  in  support  of  what  is  righteous  and  true,  and  that  it 
is  our  sin  alone  which  is  responsible  for  our  sorrow.  And 
here  we  may  consider  what  St.  Paul  says,  “Yea,  let  God 
be  true,  but  every  man  a liar ; as  it  is  written.  That  Thou 
mightest  be  justified  in  Thy  sayings,  and  mightest  over- 
come when  Thou  art  judged.”  The  moral  history  of 
mankind  is  only  read  aright,  when  we  recognise  on  the  one 
side  a perfectly  true  and  holy  and  righteous  God,  and  on 
the  other  side,  men  and  women  false  to  their  consciences, 
and  in  this  sense  all  liars,  all  untrue.  Such  considerations 
throw  a not  less  vivid  light  on  the  struggles  and  sufferings 
of  mankind.  They  offer  a profound  problem,  almost  im- 
possible of  solution  with  our  imperfect  knowledge  of  our 
own  nature.  When  we  consider  them  in  connection  with 
the  utterance  of  St.  Paul,  it  is  all  the  more  forcible.  Being 
so,  what  marvel  is  it  that  this  untruth  of  our  nature  has 
involved  us  in  the  misery  under  which  we  labour  ? Let  us 

Q 


226  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


look  at  our  own  experience,  and  consider  it  multiplied  in 
the  race  which  live  and  have  lived.  Let  us  consider  that 
every  individual  member  of  the  race  has  been  in  a more  or 
less  degree  false  to  the  laws  of  his  condition,  and  is  it  not 
a w^onder  that  mankind  should  be  making  such  progress  as 
it  has  ? Not  merely  for  the  purposes  of  our  private  opinions, 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  efforts  to  remedy  the  sufferings  of 
the  world,  it  would  be  well  if  we  started  more  generally 
from  the  acknowledgment  that  God  is  justified  when  He 
speaks,  and  is  clear  when  He  judges.  If  we  acted  on  the 
words  of  St.  Paul,  and  concentrated  our  efforts  by  the 
example  of  our  Lord,  we  should  pray  with  greater  hope 
and  greater  success. 

The  psalmist  accordingly  goes  on  to  recognise  that  the 
evil  of  which  he  is  thus  conscious  is  rooted  in  his  very 
nature  and  that  of  his  fellows.  Behold,  I was  shapen  in 
iniquity  ; and  in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me.”  The 
statement  is  not  made  as  an  excuse,  for  every  excuse  has 
been  cast  away  in  the  words,  “ Against  Thee,  Thee  only, 
have  I sinned  — it  is  simply  a recognition  of  the  fact  that 
the  nature  which  he  inherits  is  involved  in  the  common 
fall,  and,  to  a great  extent,  in  a common  responsibility. 

A clear  acknowledgment  of  this  truth  is  the  next  step 
we  are  to  take  if  we  are  to  advance  to  any  hope  of  remedy. 
We  have  to  recognise  the  fact  that  no  effectual  means  of 
recovery  can  be  found  in  human  nature  itself.  After  every 
one  of  the  springs  of  conscience  have  been  examined  we 
see  that  we  are  shapen  in  iniquity,  in  so  far  that  our  moral 
nature  has  the  seeds  of  corruption  within  it.  The  child 
may  be  innocent  of  pollution  or  sin,  but  when  the  tempta- 
tion comes  the  conscience  is  disregarded  and  the  will 
yields.  If  this  be  the  case,  if  the  very  nature  of  man  be 
corrupt  and  weak  at  the  source,  what  possibility  can  there 
be  of  any  regeneration  by  its  own  efforts  'i 

But  now  it  will  be  seen  in  what  manner  this  brings  us  to 
the  true  remedy  for  the  evil,  and  how  the  psalmist  is  rooted 
to  his  only  hope.  ‘‘Though  every  man  be  a liar”  the 
blessed  reality  remains  that  God  is  still  true,  and  He  will 
make  men  true  like  Himself  if  they  will  but  follow  Him. 
The  two  experiences  are  contrasted  in  the  very  form  of 
the  expression,  “ Behold,  Thou  desirest  truth  in  the  inward 
parts  : and  in  the  hidden  part  Thou  shalt  make  me  to 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


227 


know  wisdom  ; ” as  much  as  to  say,  Although  I and  the 
nature  from  which  I spring,  and  the  men  around  me,  are 
tainted  with  untruth  and  folly,  yet  Thou  desirest  to  see  Thy 
truth  in  the  very  secret  recesses  of  my  heart,  and  I can 
call  upon  Thee  for  this  truth  and  righteousness.  The  very 
nature  of  our  sin  thus  reveals  the  means  of  our  deliverance. 
It  is  the  revolt  against  the  righteous  influence  of  a loving 
God,  who,  although  grieved  at  it,  does  not  love  us  less,  and 
still  desires  to  see  us  true  in  our  inward  parts.  To  that 
love  and  that  gracious  purpose  of  His  we  can  at  all  times 
appeal.  We  are  always  privileged  to  utter  the  prayer, 
Search  me,  O God,  and  know  my  heart ; try  me,  and  know 
my  thoughts.  And  see  if  there  be  any  wicked  way  in  me, 
and  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting.’^ 

Contemplate  man  standing  alone.  Let  us  imagine  our 
own  souls  left  to  themselves,  and  what  hope  could  we  have 
of  truth  and  wisdom  in  the  inward  parts  } It  has  been 
observed  that  men  are  disposed  to  urge  that  forgiveness 
may  be  granted  to  us  without  the  Gospel.  Allow  it  for  a 
moment.  Is  that  all  that  the  soul  desires } Could  any 
one  of  us  be  content  with  mere  forgiveness,  if  we  were 
allowed  to  remain  in  the  imperfect  condition  to  which  sin 
has  brought  us  } What  we  need  is  truth  and  wisdom  in 
the  very  root  of  the  soul.  If  there  is  to  be  any  peace  for 
us  in  the  presence  of  the  righteous  God,  what  we  need  is 
to  have  all  the  corruptions  of  our  soul  cleansed  away,  and 
some  influence  brought  to  bear  upon  us  which  could  make 
us  new  creatures.  This,  my  brethren,  is  the  blessing  held 
out  to  us  in  the  text  that  God  will  grant  truth  in  the  inward 
part  and  in  the  hidden  part  wisdom. 

There  is  another  point  of  great  practical  importance. 
The  Gospel  brings  us  not  only  in  contact  with  humanity 
but  with  divinity  ; and  brings  all  the  influence  of  an  abso- 
lutely perfect  nature,  alike  human  and  Divine,  to  bear 
upon  our  hearts  and  lives.  In  short,  it  makes  the  prayer 
possible — we  may  almost  say  necessary — ‘‘  Create  in  me 
a clean  heart,  and  renew  a right  spirit  within  me.” 

Of  the  various  methods  by  which  this  purification  is 
WTOught  I do  not  speak  now.  But  there  is  one  specially 
important — it  is  the  force  of  the  perfect  example  of  the 
Saviour,  not  only  in  His  life,  but  especially  in  His  death 
upon  the  cross.  If  we  could  but  remember  the  exceeding 


228 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


great  love  of  our  Master ; could  we  bear  in  mind  the  blood 
He  shed,  and  that  His  very  life’s  blood  is  eternally  sprinkled 
upon  all  things  that  are  pure  and  just  and  true — then,  and 
not  till  then,  shall  we  derive  an  adequate  motive  for  the 
higher  life,  and  conquer  those  affections  for  evil  which  are 
our  weakness  and  our  shame.  What  a force  is  introduced 
into  the  world  when  by  our  struggles  to  be  pure  we  stand 
with  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ!  If  we  regarded  the  matter 
from  a merely  moral  point  of  view,  that  struggle  has  been 
stamped  with  the  highest  importance  to  those  around  us. 
We  have  of  late  become  only  too  familiar — God  grant  that 
we  may  not  become  more  familiar  still  1 — with  the  manner 
in  which  scenes  of  pain  and  bloodshed  have  harrowed  the 
soul.  If  we  realized  that  in  every  impatient  or  sinful  word, 
act,  or  desire,  we  despised  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  should 
we  not  shrink  from  sin  } Consider  Him  now  as  living,  and 
that  each  day,  each  moment,  the  righteous  spirit  within 
you  pleading  for  you  to  be  pure  and  true  and  holy  is  that 
of  the  suifering  Lord  Jesus,  and  is  there  a heart  to  resist 
the  appeal } It  is  scarcely  conceivable.  All  our  sins  have 
been  committed  in  the  absence  of  any  such  realization. 
To  the  apostles  and  other  immediate  followers  of  Jesus  it 
was  always  present.  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  was  not 
only  an  atonement,  but  was  ever  present  in  their  thoughts  ; 
it  was  sprinkled  upon  the  entrance  of  their  souls,  so  that 
the  enemy  of  souls  could  not  enter.  It  is  the  privilege  of 
Christians  to  sanctify  every  duty  however  humble,  to  inten- 
sify every  dictate  of  the  conscience  however  slight,  by  con- 
sidering it  as  united  with  the  passion  and  death  of  Christ. 
The  atoning  efficacy  of  that  sacrifice  is  revealed  to  us  as  a 
fact.  No  mystery  veils  its  relation  to  ourselves.  It  imparts 
into  our  moral  and  spiritual  life,  and  every  thought  and  act 
of  that  life,  the  most  intense  and  vivid  of  all  natural 
influences,  immeasurably  heightened  by  the  supernatural 
relation  in  which  we  stand  to  the  person  who  exercises  it. 
Let  the  power  of  Christ  in  His  person  and  suffering  be 
understood  by  us,  and  in  the  appeal  of  the  apostle,  “ Let 
this  mind  be  in  you,  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus,”  and  it  will 
possess  an  almost  irresistible  force. 


H.  W. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


229 


XXVIII.  Trust  and  Waiting.  Psalm  Ixii.  i,  2. 

'‘‘Truly  my  soul  waiteth  upon  God : from  Him  cometh  my 
salvation.  He  only  is  my  rock  and  7ny  salvation  ; He  is  iny 
defence  ; I shall  not  be  greatly  movedl^ 

Whenever  and  by  whomsoever  this  psalm  was  written, 
the  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  it  are  plainly  marked 
upon  its  very  face.  The  writer  is  surrounded  by  enemies 
who  have  long  been  hypocritically  professing  to  be  his 
friends,  but  have  at  last  cast  off  the  mask,  and  have  now 
manifestly  confessed  themselves  and  sought  to  cast  him 
down  from  some  position  of  dignity  and  to  destroy  him. 
These  intentions  fit  of  course  most  naturally  to  the  super- 
scription of  the  psalm,  which  states  it  to  be  the  composition 
of  David,  probably  taking  its  rise  from  the  persecution 
of  Absalom.  But  whether  or  no,  this  sweet  psalm  stands 
very  high  indeed  amongst  those  in  the  Psalter  which  ex- 
press triumph  and  quiet  confidence  in  God  even  in  the 
face  of  much  that  might  tempt  to  the  opposite  disposition. 
And  my  purpose  is  rather  to  take  the  whole  of  it,  and  try 
to  set  before  you  the  striking  and  lovely  characters  which 
run  through  it. 

If  you  will  look  at  the  psalm  you  will  see  that  it  is 
divided  obviously  into  three  equal  portions  by  the  inter- 
vention of  “ Selah,”  which  comes  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
and  the  eighth  verses.  There  are  thus  three  portions  in 
the  psalm,  and  I name  the  leading  ideas  of  it  here  at  the 
commencement. 

The  first  clause  seems  to  me  to  set  before  us  : the  soul 
in  waiting  upon  God.  The  second  section  sets  before  us  : 
the  waiting  soul  encouraging  itself  to  wait.  And  the  last 
section  sets  before  us : the  triumphant  confidence  to  which, 
by  waiting,  the  soul  attains.  I will  then  notice  these 
three  points  as  they  come  up  before  us  in  the  words  of 
the  psalm. 

The  first  section  : the  soul  waiting  upon  God.  There 
follows  upon  the  words  of  our  text  the  opposite  picture  : 
the  psalmist  turns  away  for  a time,  and  conjures  up  the 
enemies  running  round  him,  and  has  it — what  is  in  our 
version  I venture  to  alter,  without  defending  the  altera- 
tion of  the  third  verse — how  long  will  ye  rush  in  upon 


230 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES' 


a man?’'  and  then  you  will  observe  that  in  the  next 
clauses  of  the  verse,  with  a very  slight  alteration  of  the 
original,  we  shall  get  a continuation  of  the  question,  in- 
stead of  the  imprecation,  which  seems  here  to  be  out  of 
place : “ how  long  will  ye  rush  upon  a man  ? how  long  will 
ye  press  against  him  ? ” the  image  being  that  of  a hostile 
pressure  against  a man  ; supposing  he  were  ready  to  fall 
and  to  slip,  they  only  consult  to  cast  him  down  from  dig- 
nity. There  are  two  portions  here : the  trustful  contem- 
plation of  God,  broken  in  upon  by  the  trembling  thought 
of  the  enemies.  You  should  follow  that  order  in  your 
thoughts  about  your  troubles.  It  makes  all  the  difference 
whether  you  begin  with  God,  or  whether  you  begin  with 
men.  If  these  things  had  been  turned  round  the  other 
way  it  would  have  been  very  hard  for  him  to  have  been 
found  waiting  upon  God.  But  when  we  start  from  God, 
we  can  venture  to  think,  in  the  second  place,  of  the 
foes  round  about  us.  And  now  about  his  confidence : 
that  ‘‘truly”  with  which  the  psalm  begins  recurs  over 
and  over  again  in  this  psalm,  and  does  not  mean  “ truly  ” 
so  much  as  “only” — “my  soul  waiteth  upon  no7te  but 
God.” 

And  then  there  is  a beautiful  literality,  which  is  missed 
in  our  Bible : “ my  soul  is  silent,”  or  perhaps  even  “ my 
soul  is  silence  unto  God.”  Waiting  upon  Him,  no  doubt, 
is  the  meaning  of  the  expression,  but  the  force  of  that 
literal  rendering  we  shall  all  perceive.  What  a lovely 
simple  description  it  is  of  the  quiet  spirit,  that  with  no 
influence  of  earthly  passion,  with  no  loud  voices  of  human 
will,  with  no  buzzings  and  whisperings  of  its  own  desires, 
has  calmly  settled  itself  in  His  presence  and  stands  there 
like’ an  awe-struck  priest  in  the  presence  of  Divinity  ! “I 
will  hear  what  God  the  Lord  shall  speak,”  my  soul  is  all 
one  great  silence  in  His  presence,  and  in  that  silence  I 
catch  the  utterances  of  His  will.  And  if  you  and  I rush 
into  His  presence  with  the  hot  voices  of  earthly  impreca- 
tions and  human  desires,  and  these  rebellious  wills  of  ours 
clamouring  and  bellowing  all  round  about  us,  what  chance 
is  there  that  we  shall  ever  catch  the  secret  of  His  voice 
who  “strives  not,  nor  cries,  neither  causes  His  voice  to  be 
heard  in  the  streets” — “my  soul  is  silence  before  God.” 
And  then,  following  upon  the  attitude  of  dumb  submission 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


231 


to  the  Lord,  but  in  an  equally  beautiful  metaphor : “ my 
soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God,  for  my  expectation  is  from 
Him.  He  only  is  my  rock  and  my  salvation  : He  is  my 
defence  ; I shall  not  be  moved.'' 

In  general  one  would  say  about  that  repetition  over  and 
over  again  of  names  and  thoughts  that  are  nearly  synony- 
mous, that  it  is  not  even  tautology,  although  at  first  sight 
it  may  seem  so.  Just  as  you  and  I in  our  homes,  father 
and  children,  mother  and  child,  will  dwell  with  reiteration 
on  tender  names,  so  all  true  affection  and  all  vivid  trust 
delights  to  turn  the  object  of  its  love  round  and  round, 
so  to  speak,  and  to  look  at  it  from  all  points  of  view,  and 
to  lavish  names  which  may  not  have  much  difference  of 
meaning  between  them,  but  which  in  their  accumulations 
express  the  depth  and  security  of  affection.  So  the 
psalmist,  with  like  emotion  and  fondness  of  thought,  deals 
with  the  great  and  blessed  contemplation,  and  repeats  over 
and  over  again  those  sweet  names.  Like  that  sevenfold 
repetition  of  them  in  the  psalm  where  he  seems  to  lose  his 
breath  in  saying  over  and  over  again  all  that  the  Lord  is 
to  him,  and  a cold-blooded  critic  steps  in  and  says.  Oh ! 
you  are  saying  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again.  Yes, 
but  no  repeating  of  the  epithets  can  reach  half-way  up  to 
what  He  is  to  me,  for  my  soul  is  silent  before  Him.  And 
yet  is  not  all  reiteration,  there  is  a very  lovely  progress 
of  thought  in  these  words.  Notice:  ^‘from  Him  cometh 
my  salvation."  Well  that  is  a great  deal,  that  deliverance 
shall  flow  from  His  hand  ; but  that  is  not  all,  there  is  some- 
thing a great  deal  more  than  that — from  Him  cometh  my 
salvation,"  not  what  I am  giving  to  you,  a gift,  not  as  a 
man  may  give  to  another  something  that  is  separable  from 
him  : “ He  only  is  my  rock  and  my  salvation."  And  salva- 
tion is  much  that  comes  from  Him,  but  it  is  shallow  com- 
pared with  the  depth  of  the  scriptural  idea,  in  which  He 
is  not  only  the  giver  and  the  source,  but  is  Himself  the 
essence  of  the  salvation  which  He  giveth  ; “ He  only  is 
my  rock  and  my  salvation."  And  then  as  a consequence 
of  that  loving  contemplation  of  the  realities  of  the  refuge 
that  he  has  in  God,  there  comes  the  assurance  which  he 
utters,  “ I shall  not  be  greatly  moved."  A modest  con- 
fidence to  be  built  on  so  broad  a foundation.  He  recog- 
nises the  likelihood  that  he  shall  be  moved,  but  he  hopes 


232 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


that  he  shall  not  be  much  moved,  either  in  the  sense  of 
being  overwhelmed,  or  agitated,  or  swept  away  from  his 
refuge  : bending  like  the  willow,  and  blown  by  enemy  and 
wind,  he  is  sure  that  he  will  not  be  like  the  chaff  in  the 
threshing-floor,  which  the  wind  drives  away ; but  when  the 
tempest  is  past  the  fluttering  leaves  and  feeble  branches 
will  come  back  to  the  upright  position,  and  he  “shall  not 
be  greatly  moved.”  Our  hearts  and  lives  will  be  like  one 
of  those  Cornish  rocking-stones,  that  a child’s  finger  can 
set  in  motion,  but  which  moves  only  through  a very  puny 
arc,  and  comes  back  certainly  to  be  poised  on  its  central 
point  of  rest  : “ I shall  not  be  greatly  moved.”  And  then, 
as  if  the  very  thought  of  his  stability  in  the  face  of  the 
trouble  brought  up  the  trouble  again  in  all  its  dreadful- 
ness before  him,  there  comes  storming  in  upon  his  quiet 
confidence  the  opposite  sound  and  picture.  Look  at  the 
contrast  between  the  two  halves  of  the  first  section  of  our 
text, — the  holy  stillness  and  the  rapt  vision  of  God  that 
is  granted  to  the  quiet  spirit  in  the  first  two  verses  ; and 
the  hurly-burly,  the  tempest  and  antagonism,  and  the 
bitterness  and  the  lying  and  enmity,  the  pressing  upon 
him  who  is  ready  to  fall,  in  the  second  half.  So  your  life 
and  mine  has  got  these  two  halves,  the  still  rest,  the  end 
of  the  sorrow  and  trouble,  and  the  tossing  and  the  seething 
in  this  sea  of  troubles  ; and  no  exercise  of  quiet  confidence 
makes  facts  other  than  they  are,  or  annihilates  this  outer 
ring  of  darkness  and  trouble  that  lies  round  about  us  all  : 
and  so  we  have  the  two  halves  of  the  life  to  deal  with,  and 
we  all  know  how  into  the  midst  of  our  happiness  and  most 
faithful  moments  of  religious  consideration  and  quiet  con- 
fidence, there  force  themselves,  weed-like,  dark  thoughts 
and  care  and  trouble. 

Turn  now  to  the  second  section  of  this  psalm,  which,  as 
I said,  is  the  waiting  soul  encouraging  itself  to  wait  upon 
God.  The  first  section  began  “only  on  God  waiteth  my 
soul,”  the  second  section,  “ only  upon  God  wait  thou  my 
soul  ; ” and  so  the  psalmist  stirs  himself  up  to  do  the  thing 
he  says  he  is  doing,  and  animates  and  encourages  his  spirit 
to  continue  in  the  posture  of  silent  expectation  which  he 
has  already  declared  is  his  posture.  A very  plain  and 
simple  lesson  we  want  to  draw  from  that,  from  the  juxta- 
position of  these  two  things,  and  it  is  just  this  : the  firmest 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


233 


confidence,  the  happiest  communion,  the  quietest  submis- 
sion has  no  guarantee  in  itself  for  its  own  continuance,  and 
needs  a distinct  and  definite  effort  on  our  part  in  order 
that  it  shall  be  continued  by  being  repeated  and  shall 
last  because  it  is  renewed.  External  things  come  to 
sweep  us  away  from  our  most  rooted  confidence,  and  our 
sins  darken  so  as  to  hide  our  clearest  vision.  I have  seen 
a great  rainbow  span  the  eastern  sky  near  sunset,  bright 
and  vivid  with  its  prismatic  rays.  But  all  at  once  there 
came  storming  up  from  the  west  a great  black  rain-cloud 
and  smote  against  the  bright  crown  of  the  arches,  and 
all  disappeared  but  the  two  broken  fragments  ; and  so  the 
visible  bow  that  is  thrown  athwart  the  stormy  sky  of  our 
lives  is  ever  being  smote  upon  by  strong  clouds  of  tempest, 
and  unless  we  take  a leaf  from  the  psalmist’s  book  here, 
and  instead  of  saying,  “ my  soul,  waitest  thou  upon  God  ? ” 
say,  “my  soul,  wait  thou  upon  God,”  all  the  confidence 
will  be  dissipated  into  fear. 

So,  then,  the  next  point  to  notice  is  how  this  confidence 
which  the  psalmist  makes  the  effort  to  repeat  is  most 
surely  preserved  and  strengthened  by  the  simple  method 
of  renewed  contemplation  of  the  great  truth  on  which 
it  rests:  “my  soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God;  for  my 
expectation  is  from  Him.  He  only  is  my  rock  and  my 
salvation  : I shall  not  be  moved.”  That  is  the  first  and 
second  sections  over  again,  word  for  word,  with  two  very 
significant  alterations  : instead  of  “ salvation  ” in  the  first, 
we  read  “ hope  ” in  the  second  ; and  instead  of  “ greatly 
moved  ” in  the  first,  “ I shall  not  be  moved  ” in  the  second. 
You  and  I want  to  get  our  silence  of  spirit,  our  high  con- 
fidence, and  our  calm  hope.  The  only  way  to  do  it  is  to 
go  back  over  and  over  again  to  the  old  simple  truth  on 
which  it  rests,  and  to  lose  all  thought  of  fear  and  unrest  in 
thinking  upon  the  face  of  God.  And  thus  while  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  confidence  needs  perpetual  effort,  just  as  a 
fire  is  sure  to  go  out  unless  it  be  stirred  and  tended,  the 
issue  of  such  discipline  is  a very  much  increased  confi- 
dence and  quietness.  The  psalmist  begins  with  “ I shall 
not  be  greatly  moved,”  but  in  the  second  expression  he 
has  got  far  in  advance  of  that,  he  has  left  out  that  word 
greatly — “ I shall  not  be  moved  ” at  all.  So  has  trust 
grown  by  the  renewed  contemplation  of  the  greater  truth 


234  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


on  which  he  has  built.  And  instead  of  the  picture  of  the 
enemies,  who  came  storming  in  and  disturbing  his  con- 
templation before,  there  comes  only  the  continuance  of  the 
quiet  thought  of  what  God  is  to  him.  He  has  got  to  a 
point  far  higher  up  than  he  was  before,  and  his  devout 
expectation  is  not  broken  and  dashed  by  the  tremulous 
remembrance  of  what  lay  outside  there.  It  is  there  all 
the  same  and  he  knows  that,  but  he  does  not  need  to 
think  about  it  now,  he  passes  it  by  as  not  needful  to 
speak  of  I shall  not  be  moved,”  and  the  fact  that  I 
am  not  moved  is  shown  in  this,  that  all  the  noise  of  the 
enemies  is  storming  all  round  about  the  gate  where  I sit, 
yet  here  I sit,  thinking  not  about  them  but  about  Him. 
“ In  God  is  my  salvation  : the  rock  of  my  salvation  and 
strength  and  refuge  is  in  God.”  Well,  notice  that  is  the 
old  language  over  again.  He  has  already  said,  ‘‘  my  rock 
and  my  salvation.”  This  time  he  says  more,  he  takes 
each  of  these  two  words  and  he  enlarges  them  : “ In  God 
is  my  salvation  and  my  glory.”  When  I began,  it  was  as 
much  as  I could  do  to  get  hold  of  the  half  certain  confi- 
dence that  He  would  deliver  me,  but  I have  got  far  in 
advance  of  that  this  time.  My  salvation  and  my  glory  ; 
not  bare  deliverance,  but  enriching  me  with  something  far 
higher  than  that : from  Him  will  come  not  merely  an 
escape  from  the  trouble,  but  radiant  lustre  of  joy,  of  rights 
eousness,  and  of  peace.  These  words  lend  themselve- 
beautifully  to  the  old  Christian  thought:  ‘‘whom  He  justi- 
fied them  He  also  glorified.”  ‘‘In  God  is  my  salvation 
and  not  merely  the  negative  side,  but  “ from  God  is  my 
glory,  and  from  Him  shall  I be  clothed  with  strength  in 
Christ,  and  all  my  darkness  made  radiant  with  the  light  of 
His  perfect  likeness,  and  my  life  left  in  possession  of  His 
love.”  Such  is  the  effect  of  that  thought  until  he  has  found 
out  something  more  than  that.  And  although  it  may 
perhaps  be  fanciful,  I cannot  help  thinking  there  is  some 
dim  suggestion  or  anticipation  of  a great  thought,  that 
God  is  certainly  the  rock  on  which  we  build  and  are  safe, 
the  deliverer  and  the  defender,  but  that  most  mysteriously 
and  most  really  there  comes  up  from  the  rock,  into  us 
building  on  the  rock,  the  strength  from  the  rock  ; and  He 
is  the  rock,  not  merely  because  His  strong  hand  is  our 
deliverance,  but  because  He  infuses  into  us  something  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


235 


His  own  strength,  His  Spirit  in  the  inner  man.  That  is 
better  than  outward  deliverance  : “ My  refuge  is  in  God.” 
And  so  the  spirit  encouraging  itself  to  wait  and  continue 
waiting  upon  God,  turns  itself  now  to  the  men  standing 
round  about  him,  to  his  little  band  of  followers — if  this  be 
David  in  one  of  his  experiences  of  Saul’s  persecution — 
with  the  words  : “ God  is  my  refuge.”  That  is  to  say, 
when  a man  has  once  been  in  silence  and  waiting  submis- 
sion before  God,  has  deeply  infixed  into  his  spirit  the  con- 
fidence that  God  is  his  refuge  and  his  rock,  the  next  thing 
that  is  sure  to  come  to  him,  is  the  desire  that  the  brethren 
and  friends  may  share  with  him  the  safe  place,  and  so 
encouraging  he  next  exhorts  the  men  who  stand  round 
about  him.  How  wonderful  that  is  ! that  one  poor  man’s 
experience,  ours  if  we  choose,  may  be  so  deep,  our  convic- 
tion of  the  all-sufficiency  of  God’s  power  so  strong,  as  that 
we  shall  be  saying,  “ He  is  my  refuge,”  and  then  turn 
round  to  the  whole  world  and  say,  ‘‘  God  is  a refuge  for  all 
the  world.”  And  then  whosoever  has  incorporated  into 
his  own  spirit  the  conviction  that  God  is  sufficient  for  his 
joy  and  peace,  that  man’s  lips  must  needs  break  into 
exhortation  ; and  not  far  from  the  utterance  of  his  own 
personal  confidence  to  God  will  be  the  utterance  of  His 
message  to  man.  And  notice  how  in  simple  and  beautiful 
words  there  comes  out  here  the  setting  forth  of  the  con- 
ditions on  which  God  is  a refuge  to  all  men.  Trust  Him 
at  all  times ; pour  out  your  hearts  before  him,  in  the 
frankness  of  humble  trust,  in  the  lowliness  of  humble 
confession,  acknowledging  your  weaknesses,  and  doing  it 
all  in  the  simple  confidence  that  He  is  by  our  side  to 
comfort. 

And  then  there  follows  the  last  section,  in  which  we 
have  the  picture  of  the  grateful  sense  of  insight  into  the 
temporal  realities  which  comes  to  that  waiting  heart.  The 
reward  of  this  waiting  spirit  is  a profound  conviction  of 
the  absolute  nothingness  of  human  power,  be  it  for  me  or 
be  it  against  me  ; gather  the  whole  mass  up  together  and 
put  it  into  the  scale,  and  put  a breath  into  the  other,  and 
it  kicks  the  beam.  It  is  because  the  man  has  seen 
the  strength  and  the  power  of  God  that  everything  has 
dwindled  to  nothing.  As  George  Fox  used  to  say  in  his 
quaint  mystical  way,  “ He  has  seen  every  man  and  all  the 


236  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


world,  and  has  ascertained  how  hollow  they  are ; friends 
and  foes,  it  matters  not,  there  is  no  help  in  one,  there  is  no 
danger  in  the  other/'  And  then  follows,  ‘'trust  not  in 
oppression,  and  become  not  vain  in  robbery  ; if  riches  in- 
crease, set  not  your  heart  upon  them,"  upon  the  nothing- 
ness of  all  material  wealth,  the  external  props  and  sup- 
ports. 

And  then  follows  the  great  voice  that  tells  us  whom  we 
are  to  trust.  “ God,  my  soul  is  silence  before  Thee,"  the 
psalm  begins ; and  the  psalm  ends,  “ God  hath  spoken 
once  ; yea  twice  have  I heard,"  and  I heard  it  because  I 
was  silent  before  Thee.  And  this  is  the  double  proclama- 
tion that  he  heard  : “power  belongeth  unto  Thee,  O God*; 
also  unto  Thee,  O Lord,  belongeth  mercy." 

These  are  the  two  things  which  God  is — a God  of  power, 
so  trust ; a God  of  mercy,  so  trust : a God  of  power  before 
whom  all  the  accumulated  forces  of  humanity,  high  and 
low,  are  less  than  nothing  ; then  a God  of  mercy,  and 
therefore  safe  for  us  to  wait  before  Him.  If  thou  wilt 
thou  canst,  if  thou  canst  thou  wilt.  Power  without  mercy 
is  brutish  force,  mercy  without  power  is  a shadow  that  no 
man  trusts  ; but  bring  them  together  and  they  make  the 
firm  will  on  which  we  may  hang,  nor  fear  that  stand  will 
ever  fail.  And  the  demonstration  of  both  the  one  and  the 
other  lies  in  that  great  fact  of  the  righteous  retribution  to 
enemies  and  friends,  wherein  they  that  set  themselves 
against  His  power  shall  know  His  power  ; and  they  that 
trust  themselves  in  His  mercy  shall  find  His  mercy  ; and 
the  paradox  is  solved  for  you  and  me  that  can  say,  “In 
Christ  is  my  righteousness,  and  in  Christ  the  Judge  is 
mercy  for  us."  The  psalm  halts  far  short  of  the  blessed 
New  Testament  proclamation  wherein  we  can  say,  “we 
may  have  boldness  before  Him  in  the  Day  of  Judgment ; " 
and  although  He  judgeth  every  man  according  to  his 
works,  we  sinners  shall  find  mercy  in  the  Lord  in  that  day, 
and  be  found  in  Him,  not  having  our  own  righteousness 
but  that  which  is  of  God.  “Unto  Thee  belongeth  power, 
unto  Thee  mercy."  Trust  in  Him  at  all  times.  God  is  a 
refuge. 


A.  M. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


237 


XXIX.  Waiting.  Psalm  Ixii.  5,  6.  sou/,  wait 

thou  only  upon  God ; for  my  expectation  is  from  Him.  He 
07ily  is  my  rock  and  my  salvation : He  is  my  defence ; I shall 
not  be  movedP 

Athanasius  says  : “ In  all  trial  of  the  body,  in  all  trial 
of  the  faith,  in  all  trial  from  men  and  devils,  in  all  trial  of 
temptation,  in  all  trial  of  defamation,  sing  the  62nd  psalm.’' 
The  subject  of  this  psalm  is  Wait  upon  God,"  and  this  is 
the  special  subject,  epitomised,  of  the  two  verses  of  the 
text.  The  general  subject  is  waiting  for  God,  and  this  is 
in  particular  ways.  Let  me  go  through  the  particulars,  not 
so  much  in  the  logical  connection  and  sequence,  as  here 
uttered  by  David.  Next  notice  to  whom  the  psalmist 
speaks — “ my  soul."  If  you  look  through  the  psalms,  you 
will  find  many  illustrations  of  this  principle.  Generally  we 
shall  find  the  psalmist  is  a leader  of  praise.  In  the  146th 
psalm  he  says  : “ Praise  ye  the  Lord  " — and  then  in  the 
same  verse  he  simply  continues  ; as  soon  as  he  has  said 
this  to  the  people,  he  goes  on,  “Praise  the  Lord,  O my  soul!' 
If  you  want  to  awaken  an  oratorio  in  other  souls,  see  that 
you  get  the  chords  of  your  own  soul  in  the  right  tune.  But 
he  speaks  also  as  a preacher.  George  Whitefield  said  he 
had  never  preached  a sermon  to  his  congregation  before  he 
had  preached  it  to  George  Whitefield.  It  would  be  a good 
thing  for  us  if  each  one  would  speak  to  his  own  soul  first 
for  a congregation.  What  word  represents  multitude  as 
this  word  soul  ? An  army  in  one,  a great  congregation  of 
faculties  and  vitalities  and  forces.  Speak  to  that  congre- 
gation first  for  your  own  sake,  for  I speak  to  you  indivi- 
dually. Let  the  soul  be  wrong  and  the  lips  will  be  wrong 
— everything  will  be  wrong.  F'or  your  own  sakes,  I re- 
peat, speak  to  yourselves  first  ; but  also  for  the  sake  of 
others. 

This  is  a peculiarity  of  David’s  writing — he  starts  from 
himself.  His  words  express  not  only  what  he  ought  to 
express  but  what  he  himself  feels.  How  wonderful  it  is 
that  these  songs  which  we  sing  were  written  perhaps  in 
some  leafy  covert  where  David  was  hiding  from  his 
enemies,  alone  ; in  these  psalms  where  he  pours  out  his 
soul  to  God  we  are  permitted  to  hear  him  speak.  Now 


238  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


when  David  speaks  to  his  own  soul,  all  the  world  hears 
him,  and  let  us  now  hear  him  for  our  profit.  Let  us 
catch  the  spirit  of  his  words,  and  copy  the  example  of  his 
utterance  as  he  says : “ My  soul,  wait  thou  only  upon 
God.” 

Next  note  the  word  ‘‘  wait”  The  word  does  not  mean 
spiritual  laziness,  but  the  most  active  of  all  activities.  It  is 
difficult  for  persons  of  active  nature  to  wait  Wait  in  faith 
first  Let  my  faith  wait  upon  God  as  the  bough  upon 
the  tree,  waiting  alway;  wait  as  the  house  waits  upon  the 
foundation  ; so  may  my  faith  wait  upon  God.  This  is 
what  Christ  tells  us — Abide  in  Me.”  Wait  in  patience. 
God  is  never  behind  time.  God  hastes  to  perform  His 
word.  You  recollect  the  words  addressed  by  the  great 
Igspirer  to  the  prophet  : when  the  latter  said,  ‘‘  I cannot 
speak  ; for  I am  a child,”  the  Lord  said,  ‘‘  Say  not,  I am  a 
child  ; for  thou  shalt  go  to  all  that  I shall  send  thee,  and 
whatsoever  I command  thee,  thou  shalt  speak.”  Later  on 
we  read,  Moreover,  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me, 
saying,  Jeremiah,  what  seest  thou  } And  I said,  I see  a 
root  of  an  almond-tree.”  The  Hebrew  word  for  almond- 
tree  is  “hasting”  tree.  God  hastes  to  fulfil  what  He  speaks, 
and  so  that  almond-tree,  though  you  look  in  the  winter  and 
see  it  with  no  sign  of  a bud  on  it  and  looking  as  if  it  never 
would  bud,  that  tree  is  the  first  tree  to  bud  : while  the  white 
grass  crackles  under  foot,  long  before  the  other  trees  burst 
forth  into  buds  and  flowers,  this  almond-tree  puts  forth  its 
buds  and  blossoms.  So  God’s  promises  are  the  blossoms 
of  God’s  almond-tree. 

However,  God’s  haste  is  not  like  man’s  hurry,  of  which 
we  say  “The  more  haste,  the  less  speed.”  It  takes  a century 
sometimes  for  God  to  make  haste.  It  is  a long  time 
measured  by  the  clock,  and  so  we  are  sometimes  out  of 
patience  in  waiting.  David  felt  that  tendency,  and  so  he 
said  to  his  soul  “ wait.”  God  never  forgets  ; God  hastes  His 
word  to  fulfil  it.  Look  at  human  life  in  its  merely  secular 
aspect : you  see  two  persons,  one  old  and  one  young, 
waiting  for  a certain  thing.  The  old  person  does  not  look 
like  a person  in  impatience.  Look  at  the  youth:  he  won- 
ders how  it  is  the  thing  is  so  long.  He  looks  at  the  clock 
and  is  filled  with  impatience.  So  in  spiritual  things,  we 
are  a long  time  learning  to  wait. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


239 


God  speaks  about  it  in  this  word.  We  may  say  the 
same  to  our  souls  as  David  said.  This  also  implies  ex- 
pectancy. He  goes  on  to  say,  My  soul,  wait  thou  only 
upon  God  ; /or  my  expectancy  is  from  HimP  Sometimes 
we  wait  expecting  very  vividly  what  we  are  waiting  for,  and 
yet  we  know  that  after  a night  of  waiting  and  peril  the 
morning  will  come  ; but  it  seems  a long  time.  You  wait 
expecting.  You  wait,  and  you  notice  keenly  the  first  bark 
of  the  dog,  the  rumble  of  the  waggon,  and  the  sun  with 
its  glory  lighting  up  the  black  sky.  The  first  Moravian 
missionaries  who  went  to  South  Africa,  found  that  the  ship 
was  becalmed.  It  was  death  to  be  stricken  with  that  still- 
ness there.  They  waited  upon  God  in  that  trial,  and  one 
prayed,  ‘‘  Help  us  in  our  journey.  Thou  who  ridest  upon  the 
waves  and  wind.”  He  was  joyful  after  that, and  said,  “We 
shall  have  that  for  which  we  have  prayed  ” Shortly  after 
one  of  the  sailors  said  to  the  helmsman  : “ It  does  not  look 
like  a wind  ; ” but  in  half  an  hour  the  wind  came  and  the 
ship  was  enabled  to  proceed  on  her  way.  I do  not  say 
that  a prayer  for  certain  weather  will  bring  that  weather  ; 
but  I know  as  a rule  prayer  is  designed  to  get  the  blessing 
God  gives,  and  if  it  is  one  of  the  things  He  wished  to  give, 
pray.  Just  try  and  expect.  This  is  a summary  of  what 
can  be  said  for  that  word  “ wait.” 

The  next  word  I would  call  your  attention  to  is  “only” 
— “ wait  only  ; ” and  you  notice  how  frequently  this  word 
“ only  ” occurs  in  the  Bible,  especially  in  relation  to  God  : 
“Thou  art  the  Lord,  Thou  only;”  “Thou  only  makest  me 
to  dwell  in  safety.”  These  are  only  two  instances  out  of  a 
multitude.  This  psalm  used  to  be  called  by  certain 
Hebrew  scribes  “The  Psalm  of  the  Onlies,”  as  some  of  the 
psalms  used  to  be  called  “ The  Psalms  of  the  Morning.” 
In  Hebrew  the  word  occurs  six  times, 'but  in  our  English 
translation  only  four  times.  In  fact,  however,  it  occurs  six 
times,  once  being  translated  “truly.”  Sometimes  when  a 
great  stroke  of  trouble  comes,  when  health  and  fortune  and 
friendship  goes,  you  are  ready  to  say,  “ I have  now  only 
God  left.”  What  would  you  have  } Only  God  ! If  you 
could  but  realize  what  that  means,  you  would  not  feel  poor 
to  have  only  God.  To  have  only  God  : why  you  have 
infinite  perfection  and  love.  Do  you  want  to  mix  up  any- 
thing with  that  which  is  only  perfection  } The  sun  only 


240 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


gives  light  : would  it  give  light  if  you  mixed  up  something 
else  with  it?  Your  pure  water:  would  you  mix  up  any- 
thing with  that  ? Say  in  full  confidence,  “ My  soul,  wait 
thou  only  upon  God/*  Do  you  want  two  Gods,  do  you 
want  two  Christs,  do  you  want  two  infinite  friends  ? Does 
your  soul  want  two  husbands  ? Trust  only  in  the  one 
God  ; trust  in  Him  who  is  the  only  God,  and  trust  not 
partially  but  totally.  Some  old  divine,  I think  it  is  Father 
Trapp,  says  : “When  a man  stands  with  one  foot  on  the 
edge  of  the  cliff  and  one  foot  on  the  air  with  equal  pressure, 
he  is  sure  to  go  down.’*  You  might  as  well  stand  with  both 
feet  on  the  empty  air.  Trust  God  only,  why? 

Why,  in  the  next  place  : you  say  because  “ He  only  is 
my  rock  and  my  salvation  : He  is  my  defence  ; I shall 
not  be  moved.**  The  whole  of  these  meanings  we  have 
summed  up  in  that  word  “rock.”  The  Book  of  Deuter- 
onomy is  the  first  book  of  ail  the  Bible  in  which  God 
is  spoken  of  as  a rock.  In  the  early  ages  the  word 
used  for  God  was  “ rock  : **  because  a rock  is  real,  it  is 
not  like  a mist ; because  a rock  is  settled,  you  build 
upon  a rock,  not  upon  sand  ; a rock  is  high  above  the 
commotion  of  the  world.  So  it  was  natural  for  the 
first  men  to  speak  of  what  they  trusted  as  God,  to  speak 
of  Him  as  a rock.  So  you  find  that  Moses  in  that  grand 
passage  in  Deuteronomy,  with  grandest  of  all  words  of 
command,  with  grandest  sum  of  all  experience,  speaks 
several  times  of  God  as  a rock,  and  says  : “ How  should 
one  chase  a thousand,  and  two  put  ten  thousand  to  flight, 
except  their  rock  had  sold  them,  and  the  Lord  had  shut 
them  up  ? For  their  rock  is  not  as  our  rock.”  Their  rock 
he  says,  has  sold  them.  We  use  that  expression  in  reference 
to  persons  who  are  not  to  be  trusted. 

But  to  bring  out  the  entire  meaning  you  must  of  course 
interpret  the  early  part  of  the  Bible  by  the  final  part.  Our 
rock  is  Christ : He  is  the  fulfilment  of  that  word  “ rock.** 
When  David  said  : “ God  is  my  rock  and  my  salvation,” 
he  had  a prominent  reference  to  the  rock  that  yielded  water 
in  the  wilderness.  Moses,  when  he  spoke  so  much  about 
God  as  the  rock,  had  of  course  that  in  his  mind.  He  looked 
back  upon  a series  of  wonders,  and  one  of  the  most  won- 
derful was  that  rock  that  yielded  water.  Travellers 
point  out  a certain  green  cliff  in  the  land  of  Tyre,  and  they 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


241 


say,  there  is  the  rock  from  whence  the  water  burst  forth  ; 
and  there  the  water  is  trickling  now.  Whether  that  be 
or  not,  we  know  that  God  did  get  Moses  to  strike  the 
rock,  and  that  stands  for  ever  as  the  type  of  what  Jesus 
Christ  is.  Our  “ rock  was  stricken/’  and  out  of  our 
stricken  rock  came  all  salvation.  Our  salvation,  all 
that  makes  refreshment  to  our  souls — all  that  came 
from  the  stricken  Christ  : He  was  stricken  for  us,  and 
now  through  Him  we  drink  strength  and  beauty,  as  of  old 
the  Israelites  refreshed  themselves  at  the  rock  that  Moses 
struck.  So  when  you  wait  only  on  God,  you  wait  only 
upon  the  rock,  Christ,  that  you  may  have  the  water  of 
salvation. 

But  further,  this  was  not  only  so  for  the  Jew  but  for  the 
heathen.  Theologians  speak  of  the  Supreme  in  reference 
to  a rock.  In  the  very  heart  of  the  American  forests  the 
Indians  used  to  make  a rock  their  castles  or  defences  : the 
Jews  did  so.  David  makes  frequent  references  to  a rock 
in  this  way.  Sometimes  this  same  word  is  translated 
“strength”  or  “refuge.”  All  this  is  realized  in  Jesus  Christ. 
He  is  our  castle.  We  have  not  to  go  far  for  Him.  In 
time  of  war  the  person  had  to  run  sometimes  a long  way, 
but  we  have  not  to  do  so  : Jesus  our  castle  is  very  near, 
and  He  is  waiting. 

All  life  has  its  foes.  The  life  of  the  flower  has  a fight 
with  the  blight,  and  the  life  of  the  child  has  a fight  with 
the  sicknesses  of  childhood.  There  are  deadly  enemies 
about.  Run  into  the  refuge:  Jesus  Christ  only  is  our 
rock  and  our  salvation  : He  is  our  defence  ; we  shall  not 
be  moved.  When  the  law  points  its  guns  and  Satan  assaults 
us  with  his  armies,  run  unto  Christ  and  you  are  beyond  the 
reach  of  harm,  and  you  can  say,  “The  Lord  is  my  salva- 
tion.” Also  the  Hebrews  spoke  about  the  rock  as  being  a 
place  of  shelter  from  the  heat,  a shadow  from  the  heat. 
Men  journeying  over  the  burning  sand,  fire  above  and 
below  and  all  around,  feeling  faint  and  ready  to  drop  under 
the  blinding  rays,  feeling  the  heart  nigh  to  stop:  then  they 
see  a rock,  and  in  the  shadow  of  that  rock  they  fling  them- 
selves down  and  get  refreshment.  You  have  that  ready  at 
hand:  it  is  not  that  which  is  wanting — “My  soul,  wait  thou 
only  upon  God  ; for  my  expectation  is  from  Him.  He 
only  is  my  rock  and  my  salvation.” 


R 


242 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


One  word  more : this  is  unlike  all  other  rocks.  David 
said,  “Our  rock  is  not  like  other  rocks,”  our  rock  Jesus 
Christ  is  a rock  all  feeling,  all  sympathy.  This  startles  us 
— it  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  the  Bible.  Who  would  cry 
out  to  a rock  "i  Why,  David  did.  He  prayed  to  the  rock, 
a certain  rock,  a rock  so  kind,  so  sympathetic  that  he  was 
astonished  that  no  answer  once  came  to  his  prayer,  and  he 
said  : “O  God  my  rock,  hast  Thou  forgotten  me?  ” When 
we  have  sorrow,  our  rock  is  sorry  for  us  ; when  men  are 
cold  to  us,  our  rock  has  a warm  heart ; when  we  are  not 
able  to  help  ourselves,  our  rock  will  help  us. 

Trust  in  Him  at  all  times  : He  is  our  strength.  You 
can  take  these  words  of  strength  and  consolation.  Trust 
in  Him  at  all  times,  all  ye  people  : in  times  of  weakness,  in 
times  of  strength,  in  times  of  sickness,  in  times  of  health, 
in  times  of  indifference : in  all  times,  times  of  the  night, 
times  of  the  day,  times  of  girding  on  the  sword,  times  of 
striking  with  it,  and  times  of  dealing  the  blow  back  again  ; 
weeping  times,  dying  times,  working  times,  wrestling  times, 
trusting  Him  at  all  times.  O ye  people,  pour  out  your 
hearts  to  God  in  complete  trust,  in  perfect  faith.  Amen. 

C.  S. 

XXX.  A Song  for  the  New  Year.  Psalm  cxxi. 
“ I will  lip  up  mhie  eyes  unto  the  hills^  from  whence  comeih 
my  helpP 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  psalm  is  one  which  we  may  well 
take  for  our  encouragement  and  our  strength  at  the  begin- 
ning of  another  year. 

Always  in  season,  it  is  especially  seasonable  at  such  a 
time  as  this  ; and  in  itself  it  is  so  comprehensive,  covering 
the  whole  ground  of  our  necessities,  that  instead  of  isolating 
a verse  of  it  and  talking  about  that,  I would  rather  just 
take  the  whole  psalm,  and  try  to  bring  out  more  of  the 
meaning  than  perhaps  a superficial  examination  might 
convey. 

“ I will  lift  up  mine  eyes  to  the  hills,”  says  some  one  ; 
we  do  not  know  who,  we  do  not  know  under  what  circum- 
stances. Some  people  say  an  exile  away  in  Babylon, 
looking  across  the  desert  to  the  horizon,  behind  which 
lay  the  mountains  of  his  native  land.  Some  people  say  a 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


243 


pilgrim,  going  up  to  the  city,  and  catching  the  first  sight 
of ‘'the  mountains  that  are  round  about  Jerusalem/' 

It  matters  very  little  which  of  the  two  ideas  we  adopt  ; 
in  either  case  the  hills  to  which  the  eyes  were  lifted  are  a 
symbol  of  the  strength  of  the  lofty,  eternal  God  who  is  the 
true  helper  of  His  people — “ I will  lift  up  mine  eyes  to  the 
hills.”  And  then  the  next  clause  has  far  more  force  in  the 
original  than  in  our  Bible,  for  it  is  a question  there, — 
“ Whence  does  my  help  come  ? ” He  looks  to  the  moun- 
tains, and  a question  springs  to  his  lips  which  may  be  a 
question  of  longing,  but  I think  is  rather  a question  of, 
almost,  doubt.  “ Does  my  help  come  from  them  ? I do 
not  see  any  help  coming.”  And  then  he  lifts  his  eyes 
higher  than  the  hills,  up  above  all  symbols,  away  from  all 
material  things,  high  up ; — not  to  the  hills  but  to  the 
heavens. 

“ My  help  cometh  from  the  Lord,  which  made  heaven 
and  earth.”  That  is  a loftier  glance  than  to  “ the  hills  that 
are  round  about  Jerusalem;”  beyond  symbols,  above  the 
material,  far  in  advance  of  everything  creatural,  however 
strong,  however  lofty,  however  firmly  rooted, — we  must  look 
there  if  we  are  to  look  to  the  place  from  which  our  true 
help  comes.  It  is  well  when  we  can  look  to  the  hills,  but 
it  is  needful  that  we  should  look  to  the  heavens.  And  when 
a questioning  soul  can  answer  its  own  question,  that  is  a 
soul  that  is  at  rest. 

When  a man  asks  where  his  help  is  to  come  from,  it  is 
a weariness  and  a misery  for  him  unless  he  can  give  the 
answer  with  that  full-toned  triumphant  confidence,  and 
say : “ from  the  Lord  which  made  heaven  and  earth.” 
And  then  look  how,  in  this  exercise  of  faith,  lifting  up  the 
eyes  above  all  the  material,  up  to  the  infinite  Father,  look 
how  the  man  gets  confidence  and  gladness  from  the  one 
thought,  the  thought  of  who  it  is  into  whose  arms  he  is 
flinging  himself : " The  Lord  ! which  made  heaven  and 

earth.” 

He  grasps  in  that  idea  these  two  things, — Eternal  Being, 
which  is  implied  in  the  name  Jehovah,  and  infinite  creative 
power,  which  is  implied  in  the  Maker  of  the  lofty  universe 
and  of  this  low  earth.  These  two  things  are  the  basis  of 
the  confidence  that  his  help  will  come  from  Him. 

If  it  be  true  that  between  me  and  One  who  loves  for 


244 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


ever,  unchanging  and  undecaying,  and  who,  by  the  breath 
of  His  lips — His  almighty  respiration,  if  I may  so  say — 
breathed  out  all  this  great  universe  ; if  it  be  true  that 
between  Him  and  me  there  are  relations  of  sonship  and  love 
and  Fatherhood,  then  my  help  is  sure,  whatever  befals.  Let 
us  let  the  full  sunlight  of  that  thought,  of  how  dear  God  is, 
flood  our  hearts,  that  He  is ‘‘the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  for  ever  ; that  everything  that  is,  or  that  ever  has 
been,  or  that  ever  shall  be,  is  but  the  issue  of  His  will,  and 
then  we  can  stand  in  the  centre  and  feel  that  we  have  got 
to  the  heart  of  things,  and  that  all  that  lives  round  about  us 
is  living  for  our  good,  and  that  it  is  according  to  His  will  by 
whose  strength  we  stand.  “ Up  to  the  hills  V No  ! that 
is  too  low.  Up  to  the  hills  if  we  look  only,  we  are  only 
dwelling  in  the  region  of  questions,  but  if  we  look  up  into 
the  heavens  we  are  dwelling  in  the  region  of  affirmation 
and  assurance. 

And  so,  if  you  notice,  after  this  first  verse  the  psalm 
seems  to  change  its  tone,  and  a new  speaker  comes. 
Instead  of  reading  about  the  “I”  and  “my,"’  we  read 
about  “ He”  and  “ thee.”  “ He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to 
be  moved  ; He  that  keepeth  thee  will  not  slumber.”  And 
so  on.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  change  of  tone  ? We 
cannot  exactly  say  that  it  is  intended  to  represent  two 
different  speakers,  but  we  may  come  very  near  it.  It  is 
the  man  communing  with  himself  after  a different  fashion. 
*He  began  with  that  weary  cry  as  of  a man  whose  eyes 
have  long  been  looking  for  help,  and  who  has  said  a 
hundred  times: — “Do  you  see  anybody  coming?”  He 
begins  with  a voice  of  longing  that  quickly  passes  into  the 
voice  of  confidence  ; and  then  he  makes  a pause,  and  in 
the  silence  of  his  own  spirit  there  rises  up  the  assurance, 
so  deep,  so  vivid,  so  certain,  that  he  is  sure  it  cannot  be 
his  own  imagination,  but  somebody  else  that  is  speaking 
to  him. 

That  is  to  say : — if  we  will  wait  patiently  before  God, 
and  try  in  the  midst  of  our  troubles  and  conflicts  and 
doubts  to  fix  our  thoughts  and  our  hopes  upon  Him,  there 
will  presently  be  heard  in  our  hearts  a voice  which,  though 
it  be  our  own,  is  charged  with  a message  from  some  one 
else  than  ourselves,  and  speaks  to  us  what  is  not  our  own 
imaginations  but  is  felt  to  be  God’s  faithful  word.  And  so 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


245 


the  man  that  says  : “ My  help  cometh  from  the  Lord,’’  and 
then  says : “ Speak,  Lord  ! Thy  servant  heareth  ! ” will 
hear  a still  small  voice,  diviner  than  his  own,  whispering 
to  him  : “ He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved  ; He 
that  keepeth  thee  will  not  slumber.” 

And  so  the  psalm  goes  on,  from  this  general  point  of 
view,  to  put  in  two  or  three  different  ways  the  great  thought 
of  the  perpetual  help  and  all-sufficient  presence  of  the  God 
who  is  the  “ Keeper  of  Israel.”  “ Keeper  ” and  “ keeping” 
occurs  half  a dozen  times  in  the  psalm.  Our  translators 
have  made  sad  mangling  work  of  it  by  their  habit,  of  which 
they  were  so  fond,  of  varying  the  same  expression  ; and 
they  have  hidden  away  from  the  English  reader  the  beauti- 
ful continuity  of  the  psalm.  “ The  Lord  that  keepeth  thee 
will  not  slumber.”  “ He  that  keepeth  Israel  shall  not 
slumber.”  “The  Lord  is  thy  Keeper.”  “The  Lord  shall 
keep  thee  from  evil : He  shall  keep  thy  soul.”  It  is  “ keep 
keep,  keep,”  all  through  : keeping  and  a Keeper  are  the 
two  main  ideas  that  lie  in  the  rest  of  the  psalm. 

“ He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved.”  If  the  psalm 
is  a pilgrim’s  psalm,  that  is  beautiful.  The  one  thing  that 
a pedestrian  pilgrim  wants  is  a firm,  sure  foot,  that  will 
carry  him  along  the  road  and  not  be  weary  ; and  here  is 
the  promise  for  him.  But  at  any  rate  here  is  the  idea  of 
steadfastness  against  all  temptation  ; the  main  thought  of 
that  first  portion  of  the  psalm,  as  I take  it,  is  the  suggestion 
of  the  continual  guard  that  this  keeping  Hand  preserves 
over  us.  When  all  the  camp  slumbers.  He  is  awake  ; 
nothing  ever  breaks  the  uninterrupted  continuity  of  that 
Divine  protection.  Right  on  through  the  whole  life  it  runs, 
never  slumbering,  never  changing. 

And  then  there  is  another  beautiful  thing.  I am  a poor, 
weak,  insignificant  unit ; can  I venture  to  draw  down  upon 
my  head  the  thought  of  that  almighty  shield  and  ever- 
present protection.^  Yes!  “ He  that  keepeth  Israel  shall 
not  slumber.”  I may  be  very  small  in  myself,  but  I ally 
myself  with  the  whole  body  of  those  whom  God  loves  and 
cares  for.  The  individual  is  lost  in  the  Israel.  It  may  be 
almost  too  much  for  me  to  think  that  I,  if  I stood  by  my- 
self, would  get  all  those  blessings,  but  I will  knit  myself  to 
the  whole  company  of  the  faithful  in  all  generations  and  in 
all  places ; and  then  I shall  feel  that  is  not  altogether  an 


246  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


unworthy  thought  of  God  and  of  His  love  and  mercy,  that 
He  is  the  Keeper  of  Israel  ; and  feel  that  all  questions  of 
mine  own  unworthiness  and  my  own  feebleness  are  lost  in 
the  broad  thought  that  I may  join  myself  to  that  family 
and  society  of  which  God  is  the  Shepherd  and  the  Care- 
taker. 

And  now  about  the  ‘‘keeping.”  “The  Lord  is  thy 
keeper  ; the  Lord  is  thy  shade  upon  thy  right  hand.  The 
sun  shall  not  smite  thee  by  day  nor  the  moon  by  night.” 
A strange  mingling  of  metaphors.  “ The  Lord  is  thy 
shade,”  is  one  idea  of  protection  which  of  course  is  very 
much  more  vigorous  than  picturesque  as  a metaphor,  when 
we  remember  the  sunny  land  from  which  the  psalm  comes, 
than  in  our  own  cloudy  sunlight.  “ The  Lord  is  thy  shade,” 
that  is  one ; “ the  Lord  is  at  thy  right  hand,”  is  another  ; 
but  the  psalmist,  disregarding  mere  pedantic  proprieties, 
mingles  both  in  order  to  express  the  thought  that  God  is 
at  one  and  the  same  time  doing  both  things  as  one  and  the 
same  act ; by  us  poor  creatures  He  stands,  giving  us  what 
we  especially  need. 

We  want  protection  from  the  evils  that  threaten  us,  we 
want  some  one  to  stand  at  our  right  hand  who  shall  be  our 
strength  as  well  as  our  protection.  So  he  places  the  two 
ideas  side  by  side,  and  says  : — If  ever  you  want  covering 
from  evils  that  threaten  you,  you  will  get  it  there ; when- 
ever you  want  companionship  from  solitude,  when  you  are 
lonely,  of  Him  you  will  get  it ; whenever  you  want  strength 
poured  into  your  feeble  right  hands,  to  do  your  work,  you 
will  get  it  there. 

The  Lord  is  with  thee  as  thy  shade,  with  thee  as  the 
Companion  to  cheer,  with  thee  at  thy  right  hand.  “ I have 
set  Him  always  there,  therefore  I shall  not  be  moved.” 
And  then  he  enlarges  this  one  idea:  “the  sun  shall  not 
smite  thee  by  day,  nor  the  moon  by  night.”  The  most 
bright  and  blessed  things  may  become  full  of  evil : the  very 
sunshine  may  slay,  the  .very  moonlight  may  make  lunatic, 
according  to  the  old  idea.  Whether  they  be  evils  which 
in  themselves  may  be  bright  and  good,  whether  they  be 
evils  proper  to  the  day  of  the  sunshine  of  prosperity,  or 
whether  they  be  evils  proper  to  the  day  of  adversity,  of 
sorrow  and  change,  the  one  shade  shall  be  a shade  from 
them  all. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


247 


And  so  we  come  to  the  last  words  of  the  psalm,  the 
expressions  that  put  the  idea  in  its  broadest  forms,  and 
these  are  : The  Lord  shall  keep  thee  from  all  evil.”  “ From 

all  eviir  As  if  he  felt  that  he  could  not  enumerate  all  the 
things  which  this  presence  of  the  Lord  who  made  heaven 
and  earth,  would  be  ; and  so  he  gathers  them  all  into  that 
one  great  sentence.  Ah ! a sentence  that  no  man  can 
receive  except  by  the  exercise  of  a very  vigorous  and 
somewhat  unusual  faith.  The  Lord  shall  preserve  thee 
from  all  evil.” 

Then,  if  anything  has  smitten  you,  it  is  not  evil.  And 
if  He  has  not  preserved  me  from  something  that  has  made 
my  heart  bleed  and  mine  eyes  to  run,  it  has  been  because 
it  was  for  my  good.  ‘‘There  shall  no  evil  befal  thee,”  says 
an  old  psalm,  in  the  rapture  of  faith,  “ neither  shall  any 
plague  come  nigh  thy  dwelling.”  So  then,  brother,  let  us 
be  sure  that  the  evil  in  the  evil  is  all  taken  out  of  it  before 
it  is  let  fall  upon  our  heads  ; that  the  poison  in  the  arrow 
has  been  carefully  wiped  from  its  point  before  He  fitted  it 
on  the  string  to  aim  at  our  hearts,  for  He  Himself  sends 
the  things  that  we  unbelievingly  and  precipitately  are 
tempted  to  call  evil ; and  if  He  preserves  us  from  all  evil, 
what  He  sends  is  good. 

Let  us  set  our  faces  to  the  unknown  future  with  that 
confidence  in  an  unseen  Helper,  who  never  is  remiss  nor 
turns  away  His  eyes  from  His  charge  ; in  an  almighty 
Helper,  who  made  heaven  and  earth  ; in  an  ever-loving 
Helper,  who,  from  His  own  fulness  of  love,  will  guard  our 
lives.  “The  Lord  thy  Keeper  will  keep  thee  from  all 
evil.  He  shall  keep  thy  soul.”  That  is  the  inmost  pro- 
tection, without  which  all  other  protections  are  nothing. 
It  is  easy  to  keep  the  body,  it  is  nothing  to  keep  that  ; it 
is  easy  to  keep  fortunes,  it  is  nothing  to  keep  them,  they 
may  come  and  go  as  they  will ; but  no  man  can  keep  his 
own  heart,  howsoever  diligently  he  may  try  it. 

And  there  is  the  one  hand  that  can  preserve  me,  soul 
and  spirit,  blameless  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  that  is  the  hand  that  keeps  from  all  evil  the  outward 
life  ; and  will  also,  if  we  will  trust  Him,  from  all  sin  keep 
the  soul — the  most  wide  and  comprehensive,  the  most 
unwearied  protection. 

And  lastly ; “ The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  going  out 


248  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


and  thy  coming  in  from  this  time  forth,  and  even  for  ever- 
more : ’’  a protection  which  extends  to  all  the  activities  of 
life,  great  and  small,  and  which  lasts  for  ever  and  ever.  So 
that  universal,  unwearied,  all-comprehensive,  eternal,  is  the 
keeping  of  the  “ Keeper  of  Israel,”  who  “ slumbers  not 
nor  sleeps.” 

“ This  God  is  our  God  for  ever  and  ever : He  will  be  our 
guide  even  unto  our  death.” 


XXXI.  The  Captives  of  Babylon.  Psalm 

cxxxvii.  t-6.  “ By  the  rivers  of  Babylon^  there  we  sat 

down^  yea^  we  wept^  when  we  remembered  Zio7t,  We  hanged 
our  harps  upon  the  willows  hi  the  midst  thei'eof  For  there 
they  that  carried  us  aivay  captive  required  of  us  a song;  and 
they  that  wasted  us  requBed  of  us  r^iirth^  saying.  Sing  us  one  of 
the  songs  of  Zion,  How  shall  we  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a 
strange  land  1 If  I forget  thee^  O Jei'usalem^  let  my  right  hand 
forget  her  cunriing.  If  I do  7iot  re77iember  thee,  let  my  to7igue 
cleave  to  the  roof  of  77iy  mouth  ; if  I prefer  7iot  Jerusalem  above 
my  chief  joyi^ 

“ By  the  rivers  of  Babylon  ” — by  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris — by  waters  that  were  unfamiliar  to  us, — great,  in- 
deed, in  themselves,  but  in  their  very  greatness  seeming 
only  to  enhance  and  to  deepen  our  despair.  Here  is  dis- 
tance— distance  from  home,  distance  from  familiar  scenes, 
distance  that  may  be  measured  in  many  miles.  What, 
then,  can  there  be  in  a scene  like  this  that  can  be  profitable 
to  us  1 

I wish  to  show  you  that  this  psalm,  though  old,  is  new, 
and  is  as  true,  in  its  main  and  substantial  features,  of  our- 
selves as  it  was  of  the  captive  Jew.  We  are  not  distant 
from  our  Jerusalem  in  the  sense  of  measurement.  No  long 
miles  intervene  between  us  and  the  place  which  is  to  our 
hearts  as  Zion.  We  are  in  our  own  house  to-day  ; we  are 
upon  our  own  chosen  ground,  and  our  own  gates  enclose 
us.  How,  then,  can  we  know  aught  of  the  dreariness  and 
vastness  of  interposing  space  which  is  known  as  distance 
from  the  scene  which  is  most  loved  and  enjoyed  1 

There  is  a distance  other  than  that  which  is  measurable 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


249 


in  miles.  We  may  be  in  the  sanctuary,  and  yet  at  an  im- 
measurable distance  from  all  things  that  are  holy,  heavenly, 
and  pathetic.  Distance  is  not  altogether  a question  of 
yard  measurement.  Distance  may  relate  to  sympathy,  to 
tone  of  mind,  to  the  immediate  temper  of  the  soul ; so  that 
a man  shall  sit  down  to  his  musical  instrument,  and  yet  his 
hands  shall  have  no  skill  upon  the  keys,  and  out  of  his 
heart  there  shall  come  no  sound  of  melody.  I speak,  I am 
sure,  to  the  experience  of  some,  in  thus  speaking.  I have 
myself  again  and  again  closed  my  eyes,  and  clasped  my 
hands,  and  put  myself  in  an  attitude  of  devotion,  and  yet 
I seemed  to  have  been  at  an  infinite  distance  from  the 
altar  ; and  yet,  may  be,  I was  speaking  words  all  the  time, 
and  devotional  words  ; and  people  that  do  not  read  deeply 
the  inner  man  might  mistake  what  was  said  for  real  .sym- 
pathy and  communion  with  the  Eternal  Now,  whilst 
it  was  sincere — whilst  every  word  really  did  come  from  my 
heart,  and  was  a cry  of  want  or  an  utterance  of  pain,  yet 
the  soul  itself  was  not  in  the  sunlight  of  the  Divine  Face  ; 
and  the  heart  felt  that  God  was  at  a great  distance,  and 
the  spirit  cried  out,  “Why  standest  Thou  afar  off*,  O God  ?” 
So  you  may  be  in  Babylon,  and  yet  be  in  Jerusalem.  You 
may  be  in  the  sanctuary,  and  yet  be  in  the  wilderness. 
Proximity  is  not  identity.  You  may  have  an  open  Bible 
before  you,  but  no  revelation  of  heaven  shining  upon  the 
inner  eye.  If  you  put  these  thoughts  together,  and  com- 
pare them  with  your  own  experience — not  perhaps  the 
experience  of  this  particular  moment,  but  an  experience 
with  which  you  are  not  unfamiliar — you  will  see  that  this 
137th  psalm,  a moan  of  an  ancient  nation,  really  expresses, 
in  tenderer  and  loftier  language  than  you  can  command, 
the  sorrow  that  consumes  your  heart  and  darkens  your 
eyes. 

“They  that  carried  us  away  captive” — “they  that  wasted 
us.”  Surely,  there  can  be  nothing  in  such  words  to  remind 
us  of  aught  in  our  own  condition.  These  tones  at  all 
events  are  ancient.  There  is  a sound  of  old  time  here, 
and  no  sound  in  our  life  conveys  such  dreary  meaning.  It 
is  a strain  with  which  we  are  unfamiliar.  We  never  spoke 
in  language  so  despairing  and  sad  and  mournful.  I have 
spoken  in  this  language.  What  is  captivity  ? A question 
of  gyves  and  fetters  and  plated  doors  and  grating  locks  ? 


250 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


That  is  but  the  very  poorest  of  all  captivity.  That  is  but 
an  exercise  of  mere  strength.  Babylon  says  to  Judea,  ‘‘I 
am  stronger  than  you,  and  whilst  I am  stronger  I shall  hold 
you  here.’’  That  is  nothing.  Babylon  is  strong  to-day, 
but  her  strength  may  be  wasted  to-morrow,  and  Judea  may 
be  uppermost.  That  is  hardly  captivity  at  all.  We  only 
used  the  word  ‘‘  captivity  ” for  the  sake  of  convenience  in 
describing  such  circumstances.  There  is  a captivity  of  the 
soul.  There  is  a possibility  of  being  at  liberty,  and  yet  of 
being  in  the  deepest  dungeon  all  the  time,  from  which  no 
turnkey  can  hear  our  cry.  There  is  a captivity  of  mind,  of 
memory,  of  affection,  of  all  that  goes  out  of  us,  in  ordinary 
circumstances,  towards  the  light  of  heaven  and  the  morning 
of  immortality.  There  are  times  when  I come  into  this 
house  a captive.  I can  hold  up  my  wrist,  and  say,  “ There 
is  no  mark  there,”  but  many  a man  has  been  able  to  lift  up 
his  wrists  laden  with  iron,  and  to  say,  ‘‘  I am  free.”  Many 
a man  has  been  shut  up  within  strong  masonry,  and  yet 
has  had  the  enfranchisement  of  the  universe  and  the 
liberty  of  the  skies.  Captivity  is  a question  of  your  moral 
state — of  your  spiritual  condition  before  God.  Are  any  of 
us  captive  to-day } Do  we  feel  a long  way  from  home  } 
And  is  there  a great  power  that  has  the  upper  hand  over 
us  ? Is  there  a severe  mastery  that  mocks  our  endeavours 
to  rise  into  light  and  music  and  joy  } Then  you  will  know 
that  this  psalm,  which  you  thought  a moment  ago  old  and 
worn  out  and  obsolete,  has  come  up  into  your  English  lan- 
guage to  say  for  you,  in  terms  which,  perhaps,  your  limited 
experience  and  genius  might  never  have  devised,  all  that 
is  in  your  heart  of  a sense  of  enslavement  and  limitation 
and  abasement  and  feebleness. 

I do  not  know  that  Babylon  is  to  be  charged,  as  at  first 
sight  might  seem  to  be  natural,  in  reading  these  words, 
with  pure  mockery  and  with  cruel  taunting  in  the  case 
of  the  captive  Jew.  They  that  carried  us  away  captive 
required  of  us  a song ; and  they  that  wasted  us  required  of 
us  mirth,  saying.  Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion.”  This 
verse  might  be  so  read  as  to  give  us  the  picture  of  Babylon 
pointing  the  finger  of  scorn  to  the  oppressed  Jews,  and  cry- 
ing to  them  in  bitter  tones,  “ Sing  us  one  of  your  songs, 
and  let  us  see  you  laugh  now.”  I am  not  sure  that  such 
would  be  the  correct  reading  of  the  spirit  of  the  text.  I 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


251 


think  I see  in  these  words  a hint  of  clemency — a disposi- 
tion rather  to  allure  the  Jews  towards  making  the  best  of 
their  circumstances.  Babylon  says,  “ Now  you  are  in 
captivity,  make  the  best  of  it : be  men  : make  yourselves 
at  home  in  this  distant  land  : sing  your  own  songs  : be  as 
glad  as  you  used  to  be.  You  know  that  you  are  in  our 
power:  you  are  shut  up  within  our  empire.  You  cannot 
get  away,  and,  whilst  you  are  here,  be  as  happy  as  you  can. 
Sing  night  and  day  : we  shall  be  quite  glad  to  hear  how 
you  do  sing  when  you  are  at  home.” 

Now,  this  is  an  experience  that  is  familiar  to  us  if  we 
have  lived  honest  lives — lives  that  are  many  sided  and  that 
approach  in  some  degree  completeness.  People  have  said 
to  us  now  and  again,  in  variety  of  tone  and  circumstance, 
‘‘  Now  you  are  in  our  company,  make  the  best  of  it.  You 
have  fallen  into  society  that  is  not  congenial  to  you,  but 
you  are  here  by  force  of  circumstances.  You  cannot  get 
your  bread  in  any  other  place.  We  all  are  men  of  a 
different  mould  from  yourself.  Why  should  you  be  groan- 
ing and  moaning  all  the  day  long  ? Come,  come,  be  one 
of  us,  and  if  you  want  to  sing  a hymn  or  a song,  sing  it, 
and  we  will  join  you  in  singing  it,  perhaps.  You  are  qui*^e 
at  liberty  to  carry  on  any  practices  that  will  not  break  up 
the  spirit  of  this  confederacy- — that  will  not  rupture  the 
vitality  of  this  relationship.  Make  yourself  happy  and 
comfortable  if  you  can.  You  are  in  Babylon,  and  you  want 
to  be  in  Jerusalem,  but  you  cannot  get  to  your  own  city,  so 
when  you  are  out  make  the  best  of  it,  and  be  as  genial  and 
sunny  as  you  can.”  Is  there  not  a temptation  to  yield  to 
hospitality  of  this  kind  ? May  not  a man  say,  “ Well,  they 
are  certainly  disposed  to  make  large  concessions  to  me  : 
they  are  not  going  to  shut  up  my  mouth  in  dumbness.  If 
I wish  to  speak  God’s  name,  and  utter  God’s  praise,  they 
are  apparently  quite  willing  that  I should  do  so,  only  I must 
be  one  of  themselves.  I cannot  liberate  myself  from  their 
society,  but  still  I think  they  are  acting  as  noble  a part  as 
they  could  possibly  be  expected  to  act.  Well,  I will  think 
no  more  of  Zion  and  home  and  tender  recollections  and 
blessed  memories,  but,  being  here,  I will  just  make  the  best 
of  it.”  Do  not  go  down  so.  If  you  can  for  a moment 
receive  a concession  of  this  kind  from  an  enemy,  and 
regard  it  in  the  light  of  a favour — if  the  great  birthrights 


252  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


of  the  kingdom  of  God  should  ever  come  to  you  in  the 
light  of  mere  human  favours  or  social  concessions,  and 
you  accept  them  as  such — you  have  lost  something  of 
the  volume  of  your  being  and  the  quality  of  your  best 
nature. 

The  Jew  said,  “No,  I cannot  sing  here.  The  air  is 
heavy  ; the  place  is  strange.  If  I have  lifted  up  my  voice 
for  a moment,  it  seems  to  have  fallen  back  upon  me  as  if 
there  were  no  outlet  heavenward.  When  I touch  the  harp 
it  is  but  plain  wood  and  plain  metal.  Behold  there  is  no 
resonance  in  it ; there  is  no  comfort  in  playing  under  cir- 
cumstances so  terrible  and  disastrous.”  So  the  Jew,  as  he 
must  do,  entered  into  covenant,  and  spoke  his  souks  feeling 
in  an  oath.  Old  Testament  men  were  wont  to  do  this.  It 

was,  “ God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if .”  The  Jew 

was  sublime  in  his  oaths,  grand  in  his  covenants,  and  he 
says,  “If  I forget  thee,  O Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand 
forget  her  cunning.  If  I do  not  remember  thee,  let  my 
tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth  ; if  I prefer  not  Jeru- 
salem above  my  chief  joy.”  Please  to  observe  the  beautiful 
harmony  between  the  speech  and  the  thing  which  is  signi- 
fied in  action.  “You  ask  me  to  play  upon  my  harp — to 
take  it  into  my  hands,  and  run  over  the  strings.  If  I do 
so,  God  strike  the  fingers  dead  upon  the  harp-strings,  so 
that  they  may  never  move  again  ; and  let  this  right  hand 
and  left,  in  which  there  is  some  power  of  music,  forget  their 
cunning  if  I touch  the  harp  at  the  bidding  of  an  alien.” 
You  see  the  connection  between  the  speech  and  the  action 
that  was  required.  “ Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion.” 
“ If  I do,  may  my  tongue,  ere  it  utter  the  first  note,  cleave 
to  my  gums,  and  be  a tongue  no  more,” — the  same  fine 
exquisite  adaptation  between  the  language  of  the  oath  and 
the  thing  that  was  required  to  be  done. 

There  was  constancy.  The  world  is  now  in  need  of  con- 
stant men.  There  is  a great  deal  too  much  india-rubber 
humanity  abroad  just  now — elastic  minds,  elastic  con- 
sciences, great  power  of  accommodation  to  circumstances, 
marvellous  ability  to  do  things  that  are  holy  in  unholy 
places  and  at  unholy  biddings.  What  we  want  is  constancy 
in  the  Church — not  bigotry,  not  exclusiveness,  but  con- 
stancy to  given  principles,  and  to  a given  faith  which  has 
been  spoken  in  love  and  professed  in  seriousness.  And 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


253 


where  such  constancy  is  felt,  and  is  exemplified,  Babylon 
must  feel  the  presence  of  the  Church.  It  must  have  been 
a wonderful  thing  for  Babylon  to  get  hold  of  a number 
of  men  who  would  not  do  as  Babylon  said, — who  could 
be  made  to  bow  down  simply  because  the  arm  was 
stronger  than  the  individual  that  was  being  crushed, 
but  who  could  not  be  made  to  sing  or  to  play  upon 
the  harp.  There  you  have  no  power.  You  can  lay 
a man  down,  throw  him  into  the  sea,  cut  him  up,  burn  him, 
blow  his  ashes  away  upon  the  winds,  but  you  cannot  make 
him  sing,  or  pray,  or  play  upon  an  instrument  before  God, 
and  be  joyful.  There  is  a region  over  which  you  have  no 
power,  and  the  world  ought  to  be  taught  that,  and  that  was 
the  first  great  lesson  the  Jews  gave  to  Babylon.  No,  we 
are  taken  away  by  a strong  hand  and  a mighty  arm  and  a 
cruel  power.  We  abide  here  : we  are  your  slaves.  You 
may  oppress  us,  but  you  cannot  make  us  feel  at  home.” 
Thank  God  for  that  home-hungering  force  that  is  in  the 
heart, — for  that  home-hunger  which  makes  us  restless  even 
when  we  are  under  the  happiest  circumstances  from  a social 
point  of  view,  but  at  a distance  from  the  loved  place.  He 
is  not  a bigot  who  loves  his  home : he  is  not  a zealot  who 
loves  his  country  before  all  the  other  countries  of  the  globe  : 
he  is  not  a narrow-minded  man  who  says  in  the  midst  of 
the  wilderness,  “Would  God  I had  a draught  of  water  from 
the  well  of  Bethlehem ! ” God  has  put  these  instincts  into 
our  hearts,  and  it  is  here  that  we  find  the  strength  of  pat- 
riotism and  the  glory  of  the  Church — in  preferring  it  to  all 
other  associations,  and  in  yielding  to  it  an  undivided  and 
loyal  homage — in  the  bending  of  the  knee  and  the  bowing 
of  the  heart  in  all  thankfulness  and  devout  love.  Have  you 
such  feeling  as  that  ? I have  but  little  faith  in  a man  who 
wholly  forgets  his  home,  and  forgets  his  friends,  and  who  is 
just  as  happy  under  one  church-roof  as  another.  I believe 
in  having  attachments  to  particular  places,  and  particular 
persons,  and  particular  ways  of  doing  things.  There  is  no 
occasion  for  such  preference  to  dwarf  itself  into  narrowness 
and  exclusiveness  ; but  I do  believe  more  in  a man  who 
has  such  preferences  than  in  a man  who  has  them  not. 

“ I love  it,  I love  it,  and  who  shall  dare 
To  chide  me  for  loving  that  old  arm-chair  ?'* 


254 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


It  is  possible,  I dare  say,  for  some  people  to  have  just  the 
same  feeling  towards  all  arm-chairs  ; but  that  is  a better 
heart — the  sturdier,  the  truer,  and  the  tenderer — that  says, 
‘‘  No,  it  is  this  chair  I love  best.’’ 

“ Would  you  learn  the  spell  ? A mother  sat  there, 

And  a sacred  thing  is  that  old  arm-chair.” 

And  SO  the  Jew  in  Babylon  was  no  longer  a happy  man. 
He  did  not  say,  ‘‘  I will  take  down  my  harp  and  make  the 
best  of  it.  I have  my  harp  here,  and  I can  play  the  old  tunes 
over.”  There  was  a home-hunger,  a home-thirst,  a pang 
that  made  Babylon  millions  of  miles  farther  off  than  it 
could  be  according  to  the  mere  road.  In  that  constancy 
you  find  the  element  which  grows  up,  when  duly  watched 
by  prayer  and  intelligent  study,  into  strength  and  solidity 
— into  a force  that  becomes  a solid  and  ruling  and  reliable 
power  in  social  life. 

Here  are  men  living  in  memory.  Do  you  know  what 
it  is  to  live  in  recollection  ? It  is  the  sweetest  of  all  life. 
There  is  a time  in  a man’s  days  when  he  comes  to  think  so. 
There  is  also  a time  when  to  live  in  hope  is  the  best.  That 
is  the  young  heart’s  sunny  time.  I would  not  shorten  it  : 
God  forbid  I should  begrudge  it.  I like  to  see  the  light  of 
hope  playing  upon  the  young  face,  and  to  hear  anticipating 
words  from  young  lips,  but  I declare  there  is  something 
sweeter,  tenderer,  mellower,  richer,  in  living  the  old  days 
over  again.  Not  so  bright,  not  so  glittering,  not  such  a 
flashing  light,  but  a calm,  subdued,  sacred  lustre  bathes  the 
past.  The  Jews  lived  the  old  times  over  again.  They 
went  back  to  Jerusalem — walked  the  old  familiar  roads, 
reminded  one  another  of  words  spoken  in  the  light,  and 
spoken  in  the  darkness.  They  lived  in  memory. 

“ Oft  in  the  stilly  night. 

Ere  slumber’s  chain  hath  bound  me, 

Sad  memory  brings  the  light 
Of  other  days  around  me  : 

The  smiles,  the  tears,  of  boyhood’s  years 
The  words  of  love  then  spoken. 

The  eyes  that  shone,  now  dimmed  and  gone. 

The  cheerful  hearts  now  broken.” 

Have  you  any  such  recollections  ? Among  all  those 
recollections  there  will  shine,  the  brightest  of  the  whole. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


255 


recollections  of  Christian  fellowship,  Christian  communion, 
Christian  intercourse,  bowing  together  at  the  altar,  strug- 
gling together  bravely,  with  a tender,  noble  heroism,  against 
poverty  and  weakness  and  illness  and  difficulty,  and  coming 
up  again  oat  of  the  waters,  and  shaking  them  off,  and  say- 
ing, We  shall  live  yet  and  see  the  land  again.”  Oh,  we 
forget  the  roughness,  the  rudeness,  it  may  be  ; we  forget  all 
that  was  merely  accidental,  and  the  solemn  soul  of  the  past 
comes  to  us  clothed  with  a body  from  heaven,  and  our 
yesterdays  are  more  charmful  and  luring  than  our  morrows. 

How  then  ? To-day  you  are  making  a yesterday.  If 
you,  young  friends,  live  nobly  now,  you  are  laying  up  for 
yourselves  an  inheritance  incorruptible  and  that  fadeth 
not  away.  You  do  not  know  the  measure  of  what  you 
are  doing  now, — its  reach  and  influence  and  pregnancy  of 
meaning  and  result.  But  ten  years  hence,  or  twenty,  and 
things  will  come  up  again,  and  the  great  law  will  repeat 
itself — ‘‘  Be  not  deceived  ; God  is  not  mocked,  for  whatso- 
ever a man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.”  Hear  it  say, 
“ Thou  didst  give  unto  me  two  talents — two  little  corn-seeds. 
Here  I am  a whole  ear  of  corn.  Cut  me  and  use  me,  or 
sow  me  again,  and  I will  still  bring  thee  more.”  If  you 
have  once  lost  the  past  you  cannot  make  it  now.  You 
must  be  making  it  as  you  proceed,  little  by  little,  day  by 
day,  here  a little  and  there  a little  ; and  you  cannot  tell 
altogether  what  you  are  doing.  But  things  shape  them- 
selves— get  into  order  and  come  back  upon  a man,  and  say, 
‘'We  are  yours:  take  us.”  I suppose  that  most  of  the 
young  people  whom  I see  before  me  now  may  confidently, 
according  to  ordinary  calculation,  look  on  to  fifty  years  of 
life.  What  if  I conjure  you  to  begin  that  fifty  years’  period 
now  by  an  oath  to  Heaven — by  a vow  at  the  cross — that 
you  will  live  purely,  wisely,  nobly,  usefully  ; and  then  into 
what  Babylon  soever  of  misfortune,  adversity,  poverty,  you 
be  driven  in  the  days  that  are  to  come,  you  will  take  Jeru- 
salem with  you,  and  the  waters  of  Zion  shall  flow  alongside 
the  waters  of  Babylon. 

Some  solemn  lessons  issue  from  this  pathetic  and  mourn- 
ful page  that  is  before  us.  It  will  be  for  our  souls’  health 
if  we  lay  them  deeply  to  heart.  You  may  be  deprived 
of  religious  privileges  : you  may  be  withdrawn  from  the 
sanctuary : you  may  be  called  away  from  your  chosen 


256  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


place,  from  your  delights,  and  your  habitations,  and  put 
into  circumstances  where  you  cannot  hear  the  old  music,  or 
look  upon  the  old  relationships,  or  extract  honey  from  the 
flowers  that  have  yielded  so  much  sweetness  hitherto.  We 
may  fall  into  the  hands  of  mockers.  Whilst  we  are  to- 
gether sitting  here,  knowing  one  another  and  caring  for  one 
another,  we  think  all  the  world  is  an  Eden,  and  that  para- 
dise has  regained  itself,  and  that  all  the  earth  is  more  or 
less  under  the  influence  of  Christian  sentiment.  We  sit 
here  with  our  hymn-books,  and  we  sing  our  psalm-tunes, 
and  read  our  Scriptures,  and  hear  our  favourite  preachers 
preach  the  gospel  to  us,  and  we  think  things  are  not,  after 
all,  so  bad  as  they  are  sometimes  made  out  to  be.  The 
minister  says  sometimes,  in  the  heat  of  his  argument,  and 
under  the  inspiration  of  his  hope,  that  England  is  not  anti- 
christian.  But,  O my  brother,  what  if  England  be 
anti-moral  ? Think  of  the  revelations  that  are  coming 
before  us  every  day  of  men  of  position  and  name  and 
status.  What  if  England  be  nominally  Christian,  but 
really  anti-moral, — if  under  a great  profession  she  is  hiding 
a great  corruption  "i  One  day,  I say,  we  may  fall  into  the 
hands  of  mockers.  They  may  taunt  us,  and  revile  us,  and 
take  up  the  holy  things,  and  throw  them  upon  us  with 
violent  hands.  Are  we  prepared  for  that  change  of 
thought  We  know  the  value  of  our  privileges  best  when 
we  have  lost  them.  It  is  possible  to  get  so  familiar  with 
the  privilege  as  to  forget  it  is  a privilege  at  all.  It  is 
possible  to  have  so  much  comfort  as  to  forget  that  it 
is  comfort.  It  is  possible  to  see  the  sun  so  often 
as  not  to  know  the  great  work  it  is  doing — that  by 
its  own  unaided  light  it  is  throwing  the  morning  upon 
many  worlds,  bringing  summer  and  autumn  upon  new 
planets — worlds  far  away  from  ours.  And  it  is  possible  to 
hear  your  minister  preach  until  you  do  not  know  that  he  is 
anything  special  or  particular  to  you,  and  you  think  that 
you  may  go  into  the  next  house  and  hear  a man  who  will 
touch  you  just  as  much.  You  may,  or  you  may  not.  You 
may  hear  one  voice  so  continually  that  it  shall  cease  to  be 
a distinctive  voice  to  you.  They  say  the  bird  shows  the 
brightness  of  its  wings  most  when  it  is  in  flight, — that  you 
see  the  colours  upon  the  wings  most  vividly  when  the  bird 
rises,  and  flies  away  from  you.  We  may  see  the  beauty  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


257 


our  Jerusalem  better  when  we  are  in  the  darkness  and 
slavery  of  Babylon. 

Do  cultivate  religious  attachments.  Do  not  let  all  things 
be  equally  common  : do  let  us  have  a little  enthusiasm 
about  some  men,  and  some  places,  and  some  books,  and 
some  scenes.  Oh,  it  is  not  living,  to  live  with  a person  to 
whom  all  places  are  alike, — who  does  not  know  what  he  is 
eating,  whether  it  is  the  very  best  or  the  worst.  There  is 
no  comfort  in  living  with  such  an  individual,  on  whom 
the  best  of  your  things  are  wasted.  There  is  no  comfort 
in  living  with  an  individual  to  whom  all  systems  and  all 
Churches  and  all  rituals  are  alike.  Do  have  your  prefer- 
ences,— not  that  you  may  antagonise  the  preferences  of 
other  people,  and  make  yourself  unpleasant  to  those  who 
may  differ  from  you  ; but  do  get  to  love  some  particular 
seat  in  the  church,  some  particular  corner.  A man  can- 
not go  slick  down  to  hell,  surely,  if  he  loves  one  little  bit 
of  the  sanctuary  better  than  he  loves  any  place  else  on  the 
earth.  Oh,  we  can  surely  get  hold  of  him  there  : we  can 
surely  touch  him  through  that  one  little  preference.  It  is  a 
very  poor  hold  to  have  upon  him,  but  it  is  better  than  no- 
thing. Do  you  mourn  your  distance  from  Zion,  and  are  you 
unable  to  sing  when  you  are  in  far-off  Babylon  } There  is 
hope  for  you.  One  day,  the  Jew  that  hung  his  harp  upon 
the  willow  shall  take  it  down.  One  day,  the  man  who 
prayed  that  his  tongue  might  cleave  to  his  gums  (for  that 
is  the  true  rendering  of  the  passage),  rather  than  he  should 
sing  the  Lord’s  song  in  a strange  land,  will  come  out  of  his 
captivity.  You  cannot  hold  a man  like  that  down  always. 
The  pathos  that  is  in  his  soul  means  something,  and  one 
day  he  will  get  the  upper  hand  of  Babylon,  and  will  be 
back  again  in  Zion. 

j.  p- 

XXXII.  Isaiah. 

Isaiah  is  the  greatest  of  all  the  prophets  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  respect  both  of  the  style  and  tone  of  his 
prophecy,  and  of  the  substance  of  his  witness  for  God  both 
to  his  own  age  and  to  the  ages  of  the  future.  I propose 
to  dwell  only  on  the  first  thirty-nine  chapters  of  his  pro- 
phecy, without  prejudging  that  question  which  has  been 
raised  as  to  identity  or  difference  of  authorship  between 

s 


258  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


this  first  section  of  the  book  and  the  portion  which  opens 
at  the  fortieth  chapter — a question,  let  me  remind  you, 
of  profound  critical  interest,  but  in  no  way  affecting  the 
authority  of  this  latter  part  of  the  book  as  an  integral 
portion  of  Holy  Scripture.  But  the  question  need  not  be 
touched  upon  now,  because  on  any  hypothesis  there  is  a 
distinct  separation  between  the  two  portions  of  the  book, 
marking  some  interval,  long  or  short,  of  time,  and  because 
the  former  portion,  which  belongs  to  the  period  ending  with 
the  establishment  of  Hezekiah’s  kingdom,  is  more  than 
sufficient  to  occupy  all  our  thoughts  to-day.  No  book  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  comparable  to  the  Book  of  Isaiah  in 
respect  of  its  style  and  tone.  ^The  very  language,  in  its 
union  of  freshness  with  perfection,  and  of  richness  with 
force  and  vigour,  marks  the  golden  age  of  Hebrew.  The 
variety  and  fulness  of  power,  uniting  pathos  with  stirring 
encouragement,  bold  denunciation  of  sin  with  unfailing 
tenderness,  sense  of  burden  and  sorrow  with  predominant 
hope,  and  fervent  patriotic  love  of  Israel  with  a clear  con- 
ception of  the  higher  and  wider  purpose  of  God  to  all 
humanity  which  the  covenant  of  Israel  served,  seems  to 
concentrate  on  this  one  book  all  the  elements  of  prophetic 
mission  and  inspiration.  Nor  can  even  translation  obscure 
to  us  the  extraordinary  wealth  of  poetic  beauty  touched 
by  the  higher  fire  of  inspiration,  both  in  imagery  and  in 
thought.  What  can  exceed  the  majestic  sublimity  of  the 
call  of  the  prophet,  in  the  sixth  chapter,  by  the  voice  out 
of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  ? or  the  terrible  picture,  in  the 
fourteenth  chapter,  of  the  fall  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  like 
Lucifer,  the  son  of  the  morning,”  amidst  the  songs  of 
triumph  of  the  rescued  earth,  and  the  taunting  welcome  of 
the  mighty  dead  in  the  realms  of  hell } Where  can  we 
find  utterances  of  tenderer  love  than  in  the  lamentation  of 
the  Lord  over  His  unfruitful  vineyard,  or  the  invitation  to 
sinners,  whose  sins  are  as  scarlet,  to  make  them  as  white 
as  snow  in  the  stream  of  the  Divine  mercy  } What  ex- 
quisite music  of  peaceful  beauty  breathes  through  the  de- 
scription of  the  wilderness  blossoming  like  the  rose  along 
the  highway  of  the  redeemed,  where  they  shall  move  with 
songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads,  and  sorrow 
and  sighing  shall  flee  away  ! What  psalm  of  thanksgiving, 
even  in  the  Psalter  itself,  is  deeper  and  fuller  than  that 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


259 


triumphant  cry,  ‘‘God  is  my  Salvation  ; I will  trust  in  God, 
and  not  be  ashamed.  The  Lord  Jehovah  is  my  strength 
and  my  song  ” Or  that  burst  of  adoration,  “O  Lord, 
Thou  art  my  God.  I will  praise  Thy  name.  This  is  our 
God  ; we  have  waited  for  Him,  and  He  will  save  us.  This 
is  the  Lord  Jehovah  ; we  have  waited  for  Him  ; we  will'  be 
glad  and  rejoice  in  His  salvation^’?  But  if  Isaiah  thus 
stands  out  pre-eminent  in  style  and  tone,  how  much  more  in 
the  substance  of  his  prophecy  ! No  prophet  ever  ministered 
more  effectively  to  his  generation.  Through  two  great 
crises  of  his  country’s  history  he  prophesied  to  Judah — 
through  the  threatening  danger  of  the  confederacy  of 
Syria  and  Israel,  in  the  reign  of  Ahaz  ; through  the  yet 
more  terrible  agony  of  the  great  Assyrian  invasion  in  the 
days  of  Hezekiah,  fresh  from  its  triumph  over  Israel,  and 
threatening  to  trample  out  the  last  spark  of  national  life  in 
Jerusalem.  In  both  it  is  clear  that  he  stood  forth  as  a 
very  tower  of  strength — the  soul  of  patriotic  resistance 
and  confidence,  because  the  messenger  of  the  light  and 
the  grace  of  the  Lord,  the  witness  for  the  true  moral  and 
spiritual  strength  of  the  nation,  in  victory  first  over  sin  and 
faithlessness  within,  as  an  earnest  of  victory  over  enemies 
without.  Two  eras  of  prosperity  he  saw:  the  one  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career,  in  the  days  of  Uzziah  and  Jotham  ; 
the  other  at  the  close  of  this  period  of  his  ministry,  in 
the  victorious  strength  and  spiritual  revival  of  Hezekiah’s 
reign. 

In  both  we  see  him  raising  the  thoughts  of  the  people 
above  the  blessings  of  earth  to  the  higher  spiritual  gifts  of 
which  they  were  the  means  and  the  earnest,  pleading 
against  the  outward  hollow  service  of  the  worldly  heart, 
and  setting  forth  the  devotion  of  a pure  life,  and  the  love 
of  God,  not  for  His  gifts,  but  for  Himself.  No  element  of 
prophetic  mission  to  his  own  time  is  wanting  to  guard  the 
spirituality  of  the  law  and  the  sacrifice,  to  witness  against 
selfish  despotism  in  the  king,  and  self-reliant  trust  of  the 
people  in  material  strength.  He  is,  indeed,  the  true  pro- 
phet of  God  to  his  own  age,  alike  in  national  sorrow 
and  in  national  joy,  nerving  it  in  the  agony  of  danger,  and 
calming  it  in  the  pride  of  triumph.  Yet,  of  all  Old  Testa- 
ment prophets,  is  he  not  also  the  one  who  looks  forward 
most  distinctly  to  the  future,  and  sends  his  peculiar  message 


26o 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


to  us  whose  lot  is  cast  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  ? As  we 
saw  previously,  there  are  two  phases  of  this  onward-looking 
prophecy : the  one  we  called  Evangelical,  anticipating  the 
teaching  and  spirit  of  the  Gospel  by  a foresight  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  in  which  the  free  obedience  of  the  spirit 
should  supersede  the  bondage  of  the  law,  in  which  the 
knowledge  of  God  should  be  unveiled,  not  to  a few  only, 
but  to  all,  and  in  which  suffering,  sin,  and  death — those 
three  scourges  of  humanity — should  give  way  to  joy  and 
purity  in  an  eternal  life ; the  other  we  rather  named 
Messianic,  as  fixing  the  eye  in  strong  personal  faith  on  a 
Saviour  and  King  of  the  whole  world,  to  come  both  as  the 
Son  of  David  and  as  the  ruler  of  the  Gentiles,  in  whom 
should  be  at  once  the  perfect  exaltation  of  man  and  the 
perfect  revelation  of  God.  Some  prophets,  perhaps,  like 
Jeremiah,  are  more  Evangelical  than  Messianic  ; others, 
like  Daniel,  more  Messianic  than  Evangelical.  In  Isaiah 
both  phases  of  revelation  are  united  in  perfect  harmony. 
As  Micah  in  lesser  measure,  so  he  in  greater,  realizes  both 
elements  of  the  great  future,  with  a vividness  which  in  earlier 
prophecy  we  have  but  little  trace.  Nowhere  does  the  Christ 
of  the  Old  Testament  stand  out  with  such  vivid  distinctness 
— whether,  as  in  the  Christmas  Day  lessons.  He  is  looked 
upon  as  the  Son  who  is  given  to  us  in  all  the  attributes  of 
Divine  majesty  ; or,  as  in  the  Good  Friday  lessons,  con- 
templated as  the  great  Sufferer,  ‘Hhe  man  of  sorrow,  and 
acquainted  with  grief.’' 

Nowhere  else  does  the  unity  of  spirit  between  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New  manifest  itself  so  clearly.  There 
is  in  Him,  as  it  were,  a gospel  before  the  Gospel ; and  the 
moral  and  spiritual  teaching  of  Isaiah  differs  but  in  degree, 
though  that  degree  be  great,  from  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul 
and  St.  John.  And  what  wonder  this  ; for  did  not  Isaiah’s 
prophecy  on  that  famous  day  in  the  synagogue  of  Nazareth 
furnish  the  Master  Himself  with  a very  description  of  His 
own  mission — to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  de- 
liverance to  the  captives,  and  recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
“to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord  ”? 

The  ministry  of  Isaiah  is  described  as  extending  through 
“the  days  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and  Hezekiah,  kings 
of  Judah,”  a period  of  at  least  sixty-two  years,  even  if  we 
reckon,  as  it  seems  probable,  that  his  mission  only  began 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


261 


in  the  very  close  of  Uzziah’s  reign,  and  take  no  account  of 
the  ancient  Jewish  tradition  that  he  survived  to  the  evil 
days  of  Manasseh,  and  died  a martyr,  sawn,  as  says  the 
history,  assunder  when  Manasseh  filled  Jerusalem  with 
innocent  blood.  The  book  which  bears  his  name  contains 
the  chief  utterances,  no  doubt,  of  that  long  ministry, 
possibly  including  in  some  cases,  as  in  one  case  we  are 
expressly  told  that  it  does  include,  words  of  the  law  spoken 
long  before.  As  in  other  prophetic  books,  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  disentangle  from  one  another  the  separate  utterances 
of  the  prophet  as  they  now  stand,  and  it  may  not  be  always 
safe  to  assume  that  the  succession  in  the  order  of  book 
corresponds  rigidly  to  the  succession  in  order  of  time  ; but 
it  seems  probable  on  the  whole  that  the  order  of  time  is 
followed  ; and  in  taking  only  the  first  thirty-nine  chapters, 
with  which  we  are  now  concerned,  we  can  discern,  after  the 
first  chapter,  which  is  a solemn  introduction  to  the  whole 
book,  a succession  of  prophecies  belonging  to  successive 
epochs  in  the  history  of  the  time.  Thus,  the  first  section, 
from  the  second  to  the  fifth  chapter,  may  belong  to  the  time 
of  Uzziah  or  of  Jotham,  ending  as  it  does  in  the  sixth 
chapter,  which  describes  the  prophet’s  solemn  call  in  the  year 
that  King  Uzziah  died.  Then  follows,  in  the  second  place, 
from  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth  chapters,  the  prophecies  of 
the  first  great  crisis  in  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  when  the  danger 
from  Syria  and  Israel  that  threatened  Judah  was  only 
averted  by  the  more  formidable  danger  of  the  Assyrian 
conquest.  Then  to  this  succeeds,  thirdly,  a series  of  various 
burdens  on  the  nations,  of  which  we  are  told  that  the  first 
v/as  uttered  in  the  year  that  Ahaz  died,  extending  from 
the  thirteenth  to  the  twenty-third  chapter.  Next,  the 
fourth  section  of  the  book,  from  the  twenty- fourth  to  the 
thirty-fifth  chapters,  is  occupied  with  the  prophecies  belong- 
ing to  the  second  great  national  crisis  in  the  days  of 
Hezekiah,  when  the  Assyrian  power,  before  which  Judah 
lay  prostrate  and  helpless,  was  broken  by  the  arm  of  the 
Lord  ; and  the  whole  ends,  in  the  thirty-sixth  to  the 
thirty-ninth  chapters,  with  a historical  narrative,  transferred 
by  the  compiler  to  the  Second  Book  of  Kings,  which  tells 
how  Isaiah’s  prophecy  of  deliverance  was  fulfilled  in  the 
destruction  of  the  army  of  Sennacherib,  and  how  the 
danger  from  Babylon,  though  as  yet  far  distant  on  the 


262 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


horizon,  was  seen  by  the  prophet’s  eye,  and  foretold  to 
Hezekiah  in  the  very  hour  of  his  pride.  Such  in  bare 
outline  is  this  great  prophecy.  Let  us  now  fill  it  in,  as  far 
as  time  allows,  with  some  general  considerations  of  the 
substance  of  each  section. 

The  first  chapter,  as  I have  said,  seems  undoubtedly  a 
preface  to  the  whole  book,  containing  in  brief  the  very 
gist  of  its  moral  teaching  and  its  prophetic  promise.  I say 
its  moral  teaching,  for,  much  in  the  spirit  of  the  Lord’s 
controversy  in  Micah,  we  find  there  a picture  of  a faithless 
and  thankless  falling  away  from  God  visited  by  His 
chastisement,  through  which  the  whole  head  is  sick  and 
the  whole  heart  is  faint;”  and  we  hear  the  indignant 
rejection  of  a hollow  and  outward  service  of  sacrifice,  and 
the  loving  call  for  a deep  and  a true  repentance  bearing  the 
fruit  of  righteous  life  ; and  I say  its  prophetic  promise,  for 
it  declares  that  all  judgment  is  to  be  in  the  true  sense 
a tribulation — a winnowing,  that  is,  of  the  chaff  from  the 
wheat — and  that  when  it  is  past  Zion  shall  be  redeemed 
with  judgment  and  her  converts  with  righteousness.  Then 
after  this  preface  opens  the  first  section  of  the  prophecy 
which  there  is  no  means  of  assigning  with  certainty  to  any 
one  period,  but  which,  I cannot  but  think,  belongs  to  the 
reign  of  Jotham  ; for  the  vision  in  the  sixth  chapter 
certainly  seems  to  me  to  be  the  first  call  of  the  prophet, 
and  it  is  fixed  in  the  year  in  which  King  Uzziah  died. 
That  grand  vision  itself  has  impressed  itself  deeply  on  the 
imagination  and  thought  of  man.  In  it  we  see  revealed 
the  unspeakable  glory  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  surrounded 
by  the  seraphic  worship  and  hymned  in  the  seraphic  song. 
The  terror  of  the  prophet  before  Him  in  his  consciousness 
of  sin,  until  his  lips  are  touched  by  the  fire  from  the  altar 
of  God,  the  call  then  gladly  heard  and  accepted,  the 
message  given  telling  of  wilful  deafness  to  God’s  voice,  and 
the  judgment  it  should  call  down,  but  telling  also  of  the 
undying  life  to  live  still  in  the  faithful  remnant,  and  to 
shoot  forth  in  luxuriant  fruitfulness  when  the  appointed 
hour  is  come — must  this  not  be,  notwithstanding  its  position 
in  the  book,  the  first  call  of  Isaiah  to  his  great  prophetic 
office  ? If  so,  the  first  section  of  prophecy  must  follow  this 
and  precede  the  utterance  in  the  seventh  chapter  which 
belongs  to  the  reign  of  Ahaz  ; and  it  must  therefore  be 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


263 


referred  to  the  transition  period  of  Jotham’s  reign,  when 
the  people,  as  we  read,  did  corruptly,  although  no  apostasy 
like  that  of  Ahaz  was  dreamed  of  as  yet.  This  section 
opens  brightly  with  a future  vision  of  the  exaltation  of  the 
Lord’s  house,  and  of  nations  gathered  round  it  in  a 
kingdom  of  peace.  Soon  it  turns  to  a rebuke  of  present 
worldliness  and  present  idolatry  on  which  the  hand  of 
judgment  is  to  pass,  turning  the  wisdom  of  counsel  into 
foolishness,  giving  to  children  the  rule  over  men,  and 
scourging  the  oppressive  pride  of  the  princes  and  shaming 
the  frivolous  and  luxurious  vanity  of  the  women  of  Israel ; 
but  in  the  end  it  clears  up  to  the  former  brightness,  once 
more  telling  how  after  chastisement  shall  come  purity,  after 
judgment  the  love  of  God  manifested  as  in  the  cloud  and 
the  fire  of  old  to  be  a tabernacle  of  rest  and  of  peace.  So 
ends  the  first  great  utterance.  But  in  the  same  section  is 
subjoined  to  it  a sadder  prophecy.  As  iniquity  seems  to 
abound,  and  the  coming  storm  of  trouble  darkens  in  it, 
we  hear  the  famous  lamentation  of  the  Lord  over  His  un- 
fruitful vineyard  ; we  listen  to  the  series  of  woes  against 
rapacity  and  revelling,  against  scorn  of  God’s  mercy,  and 
the  denial  of  the  very  principles  of  goodness  ; we  see  in  the 
prophetic  vision  the  declaration  of  judgments  already  sent 
and  despised,  and  the  great  judgment  of  invasion  and 
destruction  to  come  clouding  the  whole  heaven  of  hope 
and  roaring  for  destruction  like  the  waves  of  the  sea.  So 
ends  the  warning  to  Israel  in  the  days  of  Jotham,  when  all 
seemed  prosperous  and  the  storm  had  not  yet  broken. 

In  the  next  section  we  find  ourselves  in  the  days  of  Ahaz, 
when  the  first  great  crisis  of  trouble  has  come.  And  now 
the  message  changes  its  character  to  comfort  and  to  hope. 
The  prophet  stands  before  Ahaz  in  his  terror  at  the  com- 
bined invasion  of  Israel  and  Syria.  He  bids  him  be  of 
good  cheer  ; he  gives  him  the  promise  of  deliverance.  Ere 
a child  soon  to  be  conceived  should  “ know  how  to  refuse 
the  evil  and  choose  the  good,”  he  warns  him,  although  in 
vain,  against  the  great  Assyrian  power,  which  should  be  to 
Judah  both  a greater  danger  and  a heavier  scourge;  the 
birth  of  a child  whose  name  should  be,  Hasten  the  Booty 
and  Speed  the  Spoil,  is  made  the  sign  of  the  approaching 
fall  of  the  great  enemies  of  Judah.  The  call  is  given  to  put 
aside  hollow  and  dangerous  confederacies  and  trust  in  the 


264.  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


name  of  the  Lord.  Then  out  of  the  darkness  resting  on 
the  people  was  to  come  the  dawn  of  the  bright  day  of  peace, 
the  gift  of  the  child  whose  name  is  “Wonderful,  Coun- 
sellor, the  mighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father,  the  Prince 
of  Peace.’^  So  he  speaks  to  Judah;  and  then  on  the 
traitorous  ally  of  Syria — the  rebellious  kingdom  of  Israel — 
he  utters  a fourfold  woe.  Judgment  succeeds  judgment, 
and  the  ominous  words  are  repeated  again  and  again, 
“For  all  this  His  anger  is  not  turned  away,  but  His  hand 
is  stretched  out  still.” 

Then  the  eye  of  the  prophet  rests  on  the  Assyrian  himself 
— the  rod  of  God’s  judgment — falsely  deeming  the  victory 
to  be  wrought  by  his  own  strength,  and  to  be  used  for  his 
own  purpose.  With  a stern  joy,  Isaiah  tells  how  in  God’s 
hand  that  terrible  rod  shall  be  used  and  broken,  how  he 
shall  serve  the  Divine  purpose,  and  then  for  his  own  sin  be 
swept  away ; for  there  rises  now  before  the  prophet’s  eye 
the  bright  vision  of  the  kingdom  of  the  true  Son  of  David, 
“ on  whom  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  in  its  sevenfold 
gifts,  whose  reign  shall  be  in  righteousness  and  His  govern- 
ment in  peace.  Then  shall  the  earth  be  filled  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea ; then 
shall  the  captives  of  the  Lord  return,  and  all  enemies  shall 
perish  in  a deliverance  like  the  great  deliverance  of  Egypt 
in  the  days  of  old.”  What  wonder  that  this  utterance  is 
welcomed  with  a burst  of  exultant  thanksgiving — “ Behold, 
God  is  my  salvation  ; I will  trust  and  not  be  afraid  ; with 
joy  shall  ye  draw  water  out  of  the  inexhaustible  well  of 
salvation.  Cry  out  and  shout,  thou  inhabitant  of  Zion  : 
for  great  is  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of  thee.”  How  striking 
it  is  that  the  same  voice  which  spoke  in  solemn  warning  in 
the  days  of  prosperity  should  now  tell  the  tidings  of  com- 
fort and  hope  in  the  dark  days  of  trial ; and  how  unmis- 
takable is  the  tendency  by  which,  through  the  growing  trials 
and  dangers  of  the  present,  the  prophetic  thought  is  borne 
onward  more  and  more  to  the  completeness  of  the  great 
future  glory  of  Israel ! 

But  now  to  this  succeed — beginning  at  least  in  the  year 
in  which  Ahaz  died — a series  of  what  are  called  the  burdens 
on  the  nations,  and  working  out  with  a magnificent  fulness 
that  idea  of  God’s  universal  rule  over  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth,  of  which  in  our  study  of  prophecy  we  have  heard 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


265 


but  little  or  nothing  since  the  first  simple  utterance  of  the 
prophecy  in  the  opening  of  the  book  of  Amos.  Through 
the  whole  there  runs  the  twofold  idea  of  the  exclusiveness 
of  the  law,  and  the  catholicity  of  the  Gospel — the  view  of 
the  heathen  nations,  simply  as  related  to  the  chosen  people 
of  God,  and  judged  of  enmity  or  friendship  to  them  ; and  as 
being  themselves  also  a part  of  God’s  kingdom,  having 
blessing,  probation,  and  judgment  at  the  hand  of  the  Creator 
of  all  things,  who  hateth  nothing  He  has  made.  First, 
there  is  that  magnificent  vision  of  the  judgment  to  come 
upon  Babylon,  to  which  I have  already  alluded.  Then  the 
prophecy  turns  to  the  nearer  lands  of  Palestine  and  Moab, 
to  the  northern  kingdoms  of  Damascus,  to  the  coast  of  the 
south  of  Ethiopia  and  Egypt,  for  which,  by  strange  symbolic 
action  of  the  prophet,  is  prefigured  a captivity  of  shame  in 
Assyria ; to  Edom  and  Arabia  ; and,  lastly,  to  Tyre,  the 
great  queen  of  the  sea,  that  harlot  of  the  world's  merchan- 
dise and  luxury — a grand  survey  from  the  watch-tower  of 
prophecy  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  far  and  near, 
claiming  all  as  the  field  of  righteousness  and  mercy,  of  the 
Divine  government,  and  all,  as  in  different  degrees,  willingly 
or  unwillingly,  working  out  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  , 

These  utterances  we  may  suppose,  I think,  to  belong  to 
the  interval  between  two  great  national  crises — when  the 
first  danger  had  passed  away  of  ignoble  vassalage  to  Assyria, 
and  before  the  yet  greater  storm  of  danger  which  Isaiah 
then  foresaw  as  bursting  in  the  future  upon  Judah. 

Now,  in  the  next  section,  more  varied  and  broken  in 
character  than  the  former,  full,  I think,  of  a greater  power 
of  intensity,  both  of  joy  and  of  sorrow,  we  have  the  utter- 
ances of  that  terrible  time  when  the  full  wrath  of  Assyria, 
blaspheming  in  the  very  greatness  of  its  pride,  was  turned 
on  the  little  realm  of  Hezekiah.  These  prophecies  fall,  I 
think,  into  two  chief  groups,  the  one  from  the  twenty-fourth 
to  the  twenty-seventh  chapters,  and  the  other  from  the 
twenty-eighth  to  the  thirty-fifth.  The  first  of  these  groups 
opens  with  a passage  making  a link  of  connection  with  the 
burdens  of  the  nations.  The  prophet  looks  forth,  and  sees 
the  time  of  widespread  trouble  and  distress  upon  all  the 
earth,  probably  from  the  cruel  and  oppressive  power  of  the 
great  empire  of  Assyria  ; but  out  of  it  he  sees  shall  come 
the  establishment  of  the  chosen  Kingdom  of  Zion.  “ O 


266  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


Lord,  O Christ,  Thou  art  my  God.  I will  exalt  Thee,  I 
will  praise  Thy  flame.  For  all  nations  He  shall  spread  the 
spiritual  feast  in  His  holy  mountain  ; He  shall  take  away 
the  veil  from  all  the  people  ; He  shall  swallow  up  death 
in  victory.  Lo,  this  is  our  God  ; we  have  waited  for  Him, 
and  He  will  save  us  ; we  have  a strong  city  indeed  ; salva- 
tion is  its  walls  and  its  bulwark.  Open  the  gates  that  my 
righteous  nation  which  keepeth  the  truth  may  enter  in. 
The  Lord  Jehovah  is  our  everlasting  strength.”  “Only,” 
he  cries,  “ let  us  listen  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  ; let  us 
see  His  hand  ; let  us  bear  the  pains  of  travail  ; let  us  wait 
patiently  for  Him  until  the  day  of  trial  is  past.  If  we  do 
this,  then  life  shall  rise  out  of  death  ; the  earth  itself  shall 
disclose  her  blood,  and  shall  no  more  cover  her  slain.” 
How  marvellously  in  this  grand  prophecy  does  Isaiah  show 
himself  the  prophet  of  an  undying  hope  ! 

Then  follows,  in  yet  more  broken  and  varied  strain,  a 
series  of  isolated  prophecies.  In  one  chapter  we  hear  of 
a woe  on  the  two  great  empires  of  Assyria  and  Egypt, 
between  which  Judah  lay;  in  another  a denunciation  of 
destruction  on  the  drunken  revelry  of  Samaria,  then  tottering 
to  its  fall,  and  chastisement  on  the  proud,  worldly-minded 
statesmen  who  ruled  Judah;  in  a third  there  is  a woe 
against  Ariel,  the  lion  of  God  as  in  Judah  the  city  of  David, 
because  of  its  smooth  hypocrisy  ; in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
there  is  a noble  witness  in  the  hour  of  terror  against  flying 
to  the  desert,  against  alliance  with  Egypt,  against  base 
submission  to  Assyria — there  is  a cry  at  once  of  patriotism 
and  prophetic  warning  to  trust  in  the  might  of  the  Lord 
and  the  might  of  the  Lord  alone.  Then  in  mingled  strain 
we  hear  tell  of  the  kingdom  and  the  righteousness  which 
should  be,  of  the  worldly  confidence  and  indulgence  which 
marred  it  in  effect  and  which  clouded  its  blessings  with 
judgment  ; and  finally,  in  magnificent  prose,  there  is  a call 
to  all  nations  to  behold  the  desolation  which  shall  pass  on 
the  enemies  of  the  people  of  God,  and  the  final  revelation 
of  His  kingdom  in  all  its  phases  of  blessings — the  fruitful- 
ness in  which  the  wilderness  shall  blossom  like  the  rose, 
the  comforting  of  weakness,  the  healing  of  disease,  the 
opening  of  the  lips  of  the  dumb,  the  highway  of  holiness 
stretching  plain  and  straight  through  all  the  dangers  of  life, 
and  the  end  to  which  it  leads,  when  the  ransomed  of  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


267 


Lord  shall  return  to  Mount  Zion  with  everlasting  joy  upon 
their  heads/'  when  “they  shall  obtain  joy  and  gladness, 
and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away."  Wonderfully 
magnificent  is  this  last  prophecy,  of  which  I can  but  give 
you  the  very  slightest  sketch.  In  it,  as  in  all  that  goes 
before,  we  have  surely  the  very  loftiest  strain  of  the  pro- 
phecy of  the  Old  Testament  to  be  the  support  of  the 
ancient  people  of  God  in  their  time  of  sorrow  and  of  trial  ; 
but  although  time  fails  for  any  adequate  description,  I 
cannot  but  remind  you  now,  in  conclusion,  how  constantly 
in  this  wonderful  book  the  vision  of  that  Messianic  hope 
which  we  have  inherited  in  possession  comes  out  again  and 
again.  With  what  true  instinct,  from  the  earliest  days, 
has  the  Church  drawn  from  the  Book  of  Isaiah  her  chosen 
lessons  of  Christian  prophecy  ! In  some  places,  notably 
in  the  great  prophecy  of  the  seventh  chapter,  “ A virgin 
shall  conceive,  and  bear  a son,"  there  must  clearly  have 
been  some  fulfilment  at  the  time  typical  of  the  greater 
fulfilment  of  the  future,  and  it  may  well  be  that  to  the 
prophet’s  eye  the  type  and  anti-type  blended  in  one  ; but 
it  is  notable  that  in  every  section  of  the  book  at  which  we 
have  glanced  there  is,  as  it  were,  an  involuntary  rise  to  the 
glory  of  a great  future  hope,  now  of  a universal  kingdom, 
now  of  a Divine  King.  In  the  first  section,  the  prophecy 
of  the  days  of  Jotham,  we  have  the  exaltation  of  the  Lord’s 
house  to  be  the  centre  of  the  kingdom  over  the  world  ; we 
have  the  expectation  of  the  Branch  of  the  Lord  to  be 
beautiful  and  glorious  in  the  restored  glory  of  Jerusalem  ; 
in  the  second,  the  comfort  that  shall  come  in  the  great 
crisis  in  the  days  of  Ahaz.  And  here  we  have  three  great 
utterances  : “ Behold,  a virgin  shall  conceive,  and  bear  a 
son,  and  shall  call  his  name  Immanuel  " — God  with  us  ; 
“ Unto  us  a child  is  born,  unto  us  a son  is  given  ; and  the 
government  shall  be  upon  His  shoulder  ; and  His  name 
shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  The  Mighty  God, 
The  Everlasting  Father,  The  Prince  of  Peace  ; " “ There 
shall  be  a rod  of  Jesse;  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall 
rest  upon  it,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  understanding, 
the  spirit  of  ghostly  strength,  and  the  earth  shall  be  filled 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 
Allow  as  you  will  for  poetical  and  P^astern  hyperbole,  what 
can  have  satisfied  such  prophecies  as  these  by  any  mere 


268 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


human  kingdom  ? What  son  of  man  can  rise  to  the  great- 
ness of  that  destiny  who  is  not  also  the  Son  of  God  ? 

And  in  the  next  section,  of  the  days  of  Hezekiah,  we 
have  the  declaration  of  the  revelation  which  shall  gather 
all  nations  with  the  unveiled  eyes  of  faith  to  Jerusalem,  to 
One  who  shall  swallow  up  death  in  victory,  and  wipe  off 
all  tears  from  all  faces. 

And  the  last  section  rises  to  the  glorious  climax  of  that 
description  of  the  kingdom  of  peace  and  holiness  of  which 
in  one  kingdom  alone  there  can  be  even  any  approach  to 
fulfilment.  Yes,  my  brethren,  as  it  were  by  a spiritual 
necessity  the  end  of  every  vista  of  thought,  of  every  utter- 
ance of  joy  or  mourning,  of  judgment  or  blessing,  is  in 
Christ  Himself  The  visions  of  Isaiah  here  have  in  some 
measure  been  fulfilled  already  in  His  kingdom,  in  some 
points  wait  still  for  fulfilment ; and  in  the  knowledge  of 
Christ  they  catch  the  very  spirit  of  His  Gospel  of  grace 
and  mercy  until  they  almost  seem  to  be  a link  between  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New,  and  speak  to  us  with  even 
deeper  and  fuller  meaning  than  when  from  Isaiah’s  lips, 
touched  with  the  fire  of  God,  they  were  a light  in  darkness 
and  a comfort  in  sorrow  to  those  who,  with  him,  inherited 
the  blessings  of  the  old  covenant  with  David. 

A.  B. 

XXXIII.  The  Cry  of  the  Creatures.  Isaiah  vi.  1-3. 

In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died  I saw  also  the  Lord  sitting 
upon  a throne^  high  and  lifted  up^  and  His  train  filled  the  temple. 
Above  it  stood  the  seraphi ms : each  one  had  six  wings;  with 
twain  he  covered  his  face^  and  with  twain  he  covered  his  feet^ 
and  with  twain  he  did  fly.  And  one  cried  unto  another.,  and 
said,  Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord  of  hosts : the  whole  earth  is 
full  of  His  glory y 

The  vision  of  Isaiah  is  in  many  ways  remarkable.  First, 
because  of  the  time  in  which  the  vision  came,  and  that  time 
brings  to  us  all  in  passing  a lesson.  It  happened,  as  you 
know  quite  certainly,  because  the  prophet  leaves  no  doubt 
about  it,  in  the  year  that  Jotham  came  to  reign  on  the 
throne ; after  the  reign  of  a man  that  had  been  most 
distinguished  for  three  characteristics  which  followed  one 
after  the  other  as  a natural  consequence.  He  distinguished 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


269 


himself  for  pride,  pride  quite  naturally  was  followed  by  pre- 
sumption, and  then,  as  a necessary  consequence,  by  sacri- 
lege. He  had  begun,  like  other  men  since,  in  even  modern 
times,  by  thinking  himself  rather  better  than  God  ; he  had 
gone  on  to  presume  on  the  awful  image  of  the  Eternal;  and 
he  ended  by  disregarding  the  very  House  of  God,  and  by 
thinking  that  while  his  palace  ought  to  be  adorned  with 
splendour  of  decoration,  the  House  of  God  might  be  any- 
thing under  the  sun  ; that  anything,  however  ugly  or  con- 
temptible, was  quite  good  enough  for  God.  There  have 
been  plenty  of  Uzziahs  in  ancient  and  modern  times.  He 
died,  and  as  he  died,  and  Jotham  his  son  came  to  the 
throne,  immediately  a great  change  took  place..  Why? 
As  long  as  there  is,  just  as  long  as  there  was,  pride,  pre- 
sumption, sacrilege,  there  is  no  vision  ; God’s  laws  do  not 
change.  He  is  not  moved  although  we  forget  it.  The 
unchanging  laws  of  His  love  are  the  same,  and  if  people 
are  proud  and  presumptuous  and  sacrilegious  they  will  get 
what  they  like  ; for  Uzziah  had  been  filled  with  pride, 
presumption,  sacrilege,  and  there  had  been  no  vision. 
There  followed,  as  you  remember,  the  accession  to  the 
throne  of  Jotham.  And  Jotham  is  one  spot  of  blue  in  the 
sky,  in  the  long  line  of  kings.  No  sooner  had  the  spotless 
king  come  to  the  throne  and  the  sacrilegious  one  gone, 
“ in  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died  I saw  the  Lord.”  The 
revelation  was  remarkable  : and  let  us  remember  that  the 
way  to  see  God  is  first  to  come  to  Him,  and  then  with 
confidence  based  upon  His  promises,  which  is  no  presump- 
tion, and  takes  away  your  sorrow,  you  get  a sense  of  His 
presence  which  teaches  you  that  there  is  nothing  in  worship 
or  in  offering,  external  or  internal,  too  good  for  God.  That 
is  the  meaning  of  the  vision.  But  then  the  vision  of  Uzziah 
was  remarkable  for  a another  reason,  because  it  marks  a 
change  in  the  life  of  the  prophet,  it  cuts  across  that  life 
with  a most  splendid  chasm.  Before  that,  Isaiah  was  a 
prophet  of  things  of  comparatively  little  interest,  but  after- 
wards he  prophesied  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  But  the 
vision  is  remarkable  for  a third  reason.  It  points  out,  first, 
a revelation,  the  unveiling  of  Him  from  whom  we  come, 
and  to  whom  we  go,  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being.  It  points  out  to  us  the  nature  of  Him  upon 
whom  we  trust,  every  pulse  that  throbs,  every  thought  that 


270  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


flashes  across  the  brain,  every  affection  that  warms  the 
heart  teaches  us  His  nature,  and  that  is  important  ; it  re- 
minds us  very  distinctly  of  the  duty  of  the  creature  when 
he  is  face  to  face  with  the  Creator.  It  reminds  us  also  of 
distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  Church  of  God,  as 
distinct  from  all  religions  or  half-religions  that  have  taken 
up  a sort  of  appearance  of  being  the  tabernacle  of  the 
Eternal.  For  that  reason  the  vision  is  quite  interesting  ; 
and  therefore  let  us  gaze  upon  that  vision  for  a few  moments 
and  try  to  learn  some  of  the  lessons  that  are  in  it. 

The  one  great  refrain  of  the  prophet’s  vision,  if  you  bring 
it  up  to  its  final  result,  is  that  which  ought  to  occupy  your 
thoughts  and  mine.  God  ! God ! Well,  I would  remind 
you  that  it  is  always  well,  in  the  great  mercy  of  our 
Creator,  that  times  like  this  should  come  upon  us,  when 
we  are  lifted,  whether  we  will  or  not,  out  of  that  which  is 
apparent  into  that  which  is  real.  Let  me  speak  upon  a 
theme  too  large  to  dwell  much  upon.  We  are  living,  I 
speak  with  all  sincerity,  in  a world  of  appearances.  We 
are  carried  away  by  the  appearances  of  the  moment,  we 
are  borne  away  from  the  present  ; the  necessities  of  life, 
the  anxieties  of  business,  the  demands  of  the  moment, 
the  cry  of  man  around  us,  the  awful  sorrows  of  the  poor, 
the  splendours  and  the  troubles  of  increasing  civilization, 
our  own  needs,  thoughts,  intellectual  characters,  these 
things  are  borne  in  upon  us,  are  they  not  ? from  moment 
to  moment.  We  are  crushed  by  appearances,  we  forget 
what  is  real.  Oh  ! is  it  not  good  for  God  to  call  us  by 
what  we  call  circumstances,  to  remember  that  appearance 
is  one  thing  and  life  is  quite  another  ; to  remember  that 
there  is  a real  world  around  us  ; and  that  the  prophet’s 
vision  is  not  a pretty  picture  like  Raphael’s  picture  of 
Ezekiel’s  vision  in  the  galleries  of  Florence,  not  a pretty 
poem  like  Milton’s  Paradise  Lost,  but  is  a revelation,  the 
most  awful  and  beautiful,  the  most  real  that  we  can  con- 
template. When,  for  a moment,  we  come  out  of  the  world, 
when  we  contemplate  God  as  He  is,  we  shall  be  His 
people. 

The  vision  of  the  prophet  puts  before  us  first,  in  a very 
awful  manner,  God.  We  can  apprehend,  we  cannot  com- 
prehend that.  The  mind  can  strike  it,  and  it  can  strike 
the  mind,  but  it  cannot  grasp  so  great  a thought.  But 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


271 


there  is  a thought  about  it  which  the  mind  can  grasp.  As 
the  prophet  paints  them  in  his  vision  there  were  creatures 
in  the  temple  of  God  that  spread  their  wings,  two  of  them 
to  cover  the  face,  two  to  cover  the  feet  lest  they  should 
touch  the  soil,  two  with  stretched-out  wings  that  they  might 
do  Him  service.  But,  whatever  they  did  else,  they  did  with 
great  ecstasy  of  soul : — “ Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of 
hosts.”  They  did  that  which  the  Church  does  or  ought 
to  do,  they  did  that  which  precisely,  at  the  highest  level, 
you  and  I are  bound  to  do,  and  which  one  day,  please  God, 
we  shall  do. 

The  creatures  were,  in  the  first  place,  engaged  in  the 
exercise  of  an  intellectual  satisfaction.  There  is  about 
what  they  did,  not  the  outcome  of  a beautiful,  prophetic, 
inspired  enthusiasm,  not  the  outcome  of  a mere  enthusiasm 
at  all.  It  lay  upon  a fact,  that  was  a thing,  and  is  what  is 
helpful  to  us  now.  Facts  are  the  only  reliable  certainties  ; 
dreams,  visions,  theories,  all  other  physical  aspects  will 
vanish,  scientific  theories  will  go,  while  facts  stand.  A 
man  that  denies  or  ignores  a fact  is  a man  that  dashes  his 
head  against  a wall ; in  plain  English,  he  is  a fool.  And  so 
when  we  come  face  to  face  with  the  creatures,  we  shall  see 
that  their  cry  is  a cry  of  intellectual  satisfaction,  based 
upon  a fact,  a quiet  restrainedness  which  is  worth  our 
attention. 

Human  nature  is  always  the  same,  and  man  is  frail,  and 
in  modern  times  religion  has  sometimes  taken  the  form 
of  a wild  rhapsody.  Now  rhapsody  is  a kind  of  ecstatic 
poetry,  as  in  the  rose-coloured  light  of  dreams.  Sometimes 
it  is  beautiful,  sometimes  attractive ; but  there  is  always 
this  distinguishing  sorrow  about  it,  that  when  it  is  past, 
flitted  across  your  brain  like  a dream,  there  is  nothing  left 
like  the  basis  of  fact : a wild  religion,  like  that  of  the 
middle  ages  in  a large  part  of  Southern  Germany,  and  like 
a certain  amount  of  religion  in  modern  times  amongst  some 
who  strive  to  do  good,  therefore  we  wish  them  well,  but  a 
religion  made  up  of  rhapsody  and  enthusiasm,  and  unlike 
the  religion  of  the  Crucified. 

Believe  me,  a religion  of  rhapsody,  a religion  strongest 
when  the  nerves  are  weak  and  the  body  is  excited,  when 
we  take  such  a religion  into  the  world,  standing  face  to 
face  with  awful  changes,  with  terrible  accident,  with  dread- 


272 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


ful  death,  then  that  religion  fails.  There  is  nothing  at  all, 
as  I submit,  of  rhapsody  about  the  cry  of  the  creatures.  It 
is  the  cry  of  an  intellectual  satisfaction.  There  is  an  actual 
truth  built  upon  it,  a splendid  consequence,  the  going  out 
of  a lofty  intellect ; a sweet  restrainedness,  a wise  modera- 
tion. Ah  ! believe  me  that  restrainedness  and  moderation 
never  die  down  into  that  which  carries  a mere  majority. 
They  are  always  akin  to  truth. 

There  are  rocks  in  the  Atlantic  far  too  high  ever  to  be 
touched  by  the  most  lofty  spray.  And  there  are  thoughts 
too  lofty  ever  to  be  washed  by  the  spray  of  mere  empty 
words,  and  so  the  cry  of  the  creatures  is  the  cry  of  intel- 
lectual satisfaction.  They  are  dealing  with  a fact,  and  I 
should  like  you  to  remember  that  fact : “ Holy,  holy, 
holy  is  the  Lord  of  hosts  : the  earth  is  full  of  His  glory.” 
We  deal  with  a serious  fact,  and  it  is  quite  possible  to 
contemplate  it  Ly  the  intellect.  You  know  that  there  are 
intellectual  men  of  great  note  in  the  intellectual  world, 
who  think  that  our  religion,  and  small  blame  to  them, 
considering  the  way  in  which  it  has  been  put  before  them, 
— they  imagine  that  our  religion  is  a rhapsody.  And 
there  are  many  faults  in  our  religion — judging  by  the 
voices  of  many  politicians — but  there  is,  at  any  rate,  one 
sin  that  cannot  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Church,  at 
any  rate  she  cannot  be  charged  with  rhapsody.  No,  no  ! 
rather  the  other  way  ; and  after  all,  is  it  not  a sacred  and 
a wise  way } 

The  cry  of  the  creatures  is  not  only  a cry  of  intellectual 
satisfaction  but  an  act  of  spiritual  life.  Suppose  you  ask, 
‘‘What  is  man  } ” The  Church  answers,  and  the  material- 
ists join  their  voices  in  answering,  “ Man  is  an  animal, 
man  will  die,  dissolve  into  dust,  pass  away  into  gases, 
disappear.  But  supposing  you  ask  the  question  again,  the 
cry  of  the  materialists  will  be  silent,  but  the  voice  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  would  be  loud,  “ Man  is  a spirit.”  The 
cry  of  the  creatures  was  a spiritual  act.  The  Church  speaks 
truth,  and  if  we  are  spirits  we  can  understand  it.  What  is 
it } There  is  one  act  of  the  spiritual  life  that  to  me  is  most 
true,  and  I can  describe  it  in  no  better  word  than  that  the 
cry  of  the  creatures  is  an  aspiration.  We  have  all  felt 
aspiration  some  time  or  other.  The  boy  is  ever  hoping 
for  manhood,  the  man  struggles  on  to  middle  life ; yes ! 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


27.3 


and  when  he  reaches  the  confines  of  old  age  there  is  still 
hope  in  him,  kindled  within  in  some  dying  embers  of  the 
fire  of  the  past.  We  are  ever  looking  to  the  future,  aspiring 
always ; there  is  a poetry  about  even  the  lowest  and  the 
basest  if  we  can  only  get  at  it  through  the  medium  that 
surrounds  him,  as  mediums  surround  all  of  us — conven- 
tionalism, fear  of  other  people,  pretence,  respectability — ' 
that  wrap  us  all  around  unless  we  keep  near  to  God. 

There  is  always  the  aspiration,  the  hope  for  better  things. 
You  read  your  newspaper  each  morning,  as  an  ordinary 
English  citizen,  and  take  note  of  this  or  that  advantage, 
amused  sometimes  when  you  see  through  the  motive  for 
doing  the  things  you  see  done.  You  go  to  your  prayers 
five  minutes  after,  and  think  about  what  you  have  read  as 
a Christian — the  disasters,  the  sorrow  that  prevails  every- 
where, the  struggles  of  passion,  jealousy,  self-seeking,  misery 
that  make  up  human  existence  and  human  history  ; and 
if  you  have  a heart  within  you  or  a mind  to  think  of  it  all 
in  the  light  from  beyond  the  confines  of  time,  and  you 
hope  for  something  better  than  we  dream  of,  you  aspire 
for  the  coming  of  a moral  world  when  all  the  crime  and 
sin  will  be  gone,  when  the  scientific  and  commercial  life 
shall  be  purified.  The  act  of  a spirit  is  aspiration.  We 
have  known  what  it  is 

“To  rise  on  stepping-stones  of  our  dead  selves  to  higher  things.” 

We  have  known  too — and  the  Lord  help  us — more  self- 
seeking,  less  lofty  views,  less  pure  determination  as  well 
as  higher  purposes.  Our  path  begins  in  hope  ; possibly  we 
have  gone  on  to  a middle  life,  and  the  path  is  strewed  with 
dead  leaves  ; but  there  yet  may  be  within  us  a rising  of 
hope,  that  is  the  first  whisper  of  the  hope  of  the  glory, 
that  there  is  a higher  life,  a better  future,  where  not  the 
lowest  possessions  but  the  highest  faculties  of  man  may 
find  their  satisfaction.  That  is  an  act  of  a living  spirit. 
Now,  most  certainly  the  cry  of  the  creatures  was  an  act 
of  spiritual  life — to  see,  to  understand,  in  some  measure, 
the  vision  of  Him  who  is  the  Beginning  and  the  End  of  us 
all.  Therefore,  as  they  gazed  aspiring  and  yet  satisfied, 
satisfied  and  yet  aspiring,  rising  more  and  more  into  the 
high  thoughts  ot  perfect  brightness,  goodness,  holiness — and 
the  beauty  and  the  truth  is  lofty  as  the  heavens  and  deep 

T 


274  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


as  the  deeps — they  rose,  as  you  and  I may  rise,  day  by 
day  into  better  thoughts,  more  responsible  power,  more 
determined  intention,  purer,  sincerer  purposes  ; they  were 
overwhelmed  by  the  vision  of  His  majesty,  and  they  cried, 
“ Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord  of  hosts/'  They  lost  them- 
selves in  Him,  and  that  is  what  the  Christian  may  do  by 
His  grace;  they  lost  themselves  in  aspiration  towards 
God. 

There  is  only  one  more  act  of  the  creatures  that  I should 
like  to  notice.  It  was  not  only  the  exercise  of  an  intel- 
lectual satisfaction,  nor  yet  only  the  act  of  a spiritual  life. 
No  ! it  was  that  which  touches  us  more  closely,  the  cry  of 
a warm  embracing  affection,  of  the  heart  of  the  creature 
to  the  Heart  from  which  his  life  came. 

Ah ! surely  none  of  us  have  sunk  so  low  in  lust  or  self- 
ishness, or  contemptible  love  of  the  world,  as  to  have  lost 
the  sense  of  affection.  Surely  each  of  us  knows  some- 
thing of  what  it  is  to  love,  to  love  others,  and  if  we  love 
others,  to  rise  into  the  love  of  God.  Well,  if  we  do  that 
we  have  got  a kind  of  whispered  thought  of  that  eternal 
life,  that  view  which  is  brought  before  us  in  the  vision. 
It  was  an  act  of  affection  that  loved  God.  It  is  like  a 
picture  of  the  human  heart  when  it  stands  face  to  face 
with  the  dear  dear  friend,  and  remembers  the  future  when  it 
watches  some  strange  vision  in  an  open  grave,  and  hopes 
for  a resurrection.  It  is  like  a picture  of  the  human  heart 
in  its  better  moments,  its  higher  resolves,  its  sweeter  visions; 
and  like  the  cry  of  affection  it  teaches  us,  O Lord  ! Thou 
art  Holy,  holy,  holy!  The  whole  earth  is  filled  with 
Thy  glory." 

Now  let  us  ask  ourselves  are  there  any  lessons  to  be 
drawn  from  this,  first  about  the  soul,  then  about  the 
Church  } 

First  about  the  soul.  Let  us  learn  that  a human  soul, 
do  what  it  may,  can  never  do  without  God.  Never  in  the 
long  run.  All  the  intellectual  processes  of  scientific  in- 
vestigation, I may  add  all  those  imaginations  of  scientific 
poets  which  they  sometimes  put  in  place  of  fact,  all  the 
dreams  of  the  scientists  lead  up  to  one  distinguishing  con- 
clusion, that  there  is  one  great  cause  that  they,  the  scientists 
do  not  quite  understand.  They  cannot  quite  do  without 
God.  We  cannot  do  without  Him  intellectually.  Oh,  be- 


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275 


lieve  me,  the  best  way  to  find  that  out  is  to  try  it  as  the 
mathematicians  try  a problem,  as  we  lads  used  to  do  at 
school.  Where  does  your  intellectual  criticism  land  you 
if  you  try  to  do  without  God  I Where  } One  of  the  Latin 
poets,  the  greatest  of  any  age,  to  my  mind,  tried  it.  He 
put  his  striving  doubting  thoughts  into  poetry,  he  ac- 
knowledged that  he  had  to  forget  the  vision  of  the  life  and 
the  death  ; and  he  landed  himself  in  philosophic  despair, 
where  intellectual  men  have  often  since  followed  him. 
There  can  be  certainly  no  other  end  to  your  argument  of 
no  God,  but  first  despondency  and  then  despair. 

Try  it  where  wealth  and  commerce  and  progress  abound, 
in  its  highest  circles  as  in  its  lowest.  Oh,  I am  afraid 
we  have,  sometimes,  practical  testimony;  I am  afraid  it 
lands  you  in  pure  materialism,  which  is  only  the  hard 
language  of  earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust. 
It  will  only  condemn  your  spirits’  aspirations  to  con- 
fusion, dismay,  corruption.  There  is  something  dignified 
in  intellectual  despair  ; there  is  nothing  but  what  is  de- 
basing in  materialism. 

Try  it  another  way.  Ask  yourselves  what  this  great 
world  would  be  without  God — who  impels  the  stately 
procession  of  the  stars,  who  measures  the  circles  of  the 
winds,  who  watches  the  changing  of  the  seasons.^  Try  to 
reason  to  yourselves  what  is  the  reason  and  origin  of  the 
universe;  ask  yourselves,  ‘'How  am  I to  admire  all  this 
beautiful  Cosmos^  this  Order,  this — what  the  old  Greeks 
used  to  call  God  } It  lands  you  into  the  sense  of  an 
awful  and  prevailing  force  of  pitiless  laws,  the  crushing 
power  of  Everlasting  Movement  without  a meaning,  and 
the  human  will  is  crushed  under  the  machinery  of  the 
universe.  And  you  stand,  like  a lonely  orphan  creature, 
looking  at  the  merciless  mechanism,  how  it  would  snap 
your  fingers  off,  tear  you  to  pieces ; for  you  have  dismissed 
its  Master — God. 

Intellectual,  scientific,  material — none  of  these  can  do 
without  Him.  And  if  you  cannot  tell  the  reason  for  it, 
there  is  the  intellectual  satisfaction,  the  rest  of  the  aspira- 
tion, of  the  creature,  the  object  of  the  heart’s  affection ; 
and  it  is  all  to  be  found  in  One,  in  whom  is  no  spot,  no 
blemish,  across  whom  there  passes  no  cloud,  in  whom  is 
no  darkness  or  shadow  of  turning,  a Friend  that  never 


276  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


changes,  a Father  with  loving  tenderness,  a Heart  on 
which  we  may  always  rest,  a dear  Companion  to  whom  we 
can  always  speak  a word.  One  that  leads  us  in  common- 
place work  to  higher  things,  that  Saviour  is  the  One  that 
sustains  us  though  we  forget  Him,  the  sweet,  kind,  gentle 
Nature  who  brings  pardon  and  peace.  Every  one  that 
gains  faith  to  go  to  Him  in  His  revelation  in  His  own  dear 
Son  finds  that  He  is  holy,  that  “the  whole  earth  is  full 
of  His  glory.” 

There  is  material  glory  in  the  flashing  heavens,  there  is 
moral  glory  in  a good  man’s  soul,  there  is  supernatural 
glory  in  the  mysteries  and  the  acts  of  the  Church,  of  the 
undying  Mother  Church. 

Now  what  are  the  marks  of  the  true  Apostolic,  historical 
Church } First,  the  reality.  The  creatures  saw  a real 
God,  and  they  really  worshipped  Him.  The  Church 
always  loves  the  reality.  There  is  another  mark  of  the 
true  Church,  and  it  is  that  she  never  talks  about  a 
supernatural  Word,  as  if  it  were  supposed  to  be  some- 
times interesting,  sometimes  useful  or  profitable,  but  that 
there  is  nothing  real  about  it — as  if  there  were  a doubt 
about  it,  sometimes  holy  and  sometimes  not.  Your 
principles  are  not  those  at  all.  The  Church  is  definite 
when  she  teaches,  like  her  Master.  The  life  and  the 
words  of  Jesus  were  definite,  not  like  so-called  modern 
Christianity. 

If  we  have  the  certain  belief  in  the  existence  of  an 
immortal  spirit,  quite  definite  though  invisible,  each  with 
joys  and  sorrows  of  our  own,  we  can  realize  that  justice 
is  not  done  in  this  world,  and  that  therefore  there  must  be 
a better  country ; each  of  us  knows  that  love  has  no 
frontiers  and  that  there  must  be  an  Eternal  City ; and 
that  the  Church,  like  the  cry  of  the  creatures,  points  to  the 
future.  “The  whole  earth  shall  be  filled  with  His  glory”  ; 
but  it  does  not  always  show  its  light,  it  is  also  full  of  dark- 
ness ; the  creatures  were  speaking  of  a future  as  if  it  were 
accomplished,  for  they  were  gazing  upon  the  coming 
glory. 

Ah!  remember  your  God  I your  relation  to  Him.  The 
tones  of  your  Church  must  be  like  the  Old  Testament 
harmonies  of  the  Church.  And  remember,  it  is  quite 
practical  work  when  you  are  at  church,  or  at  your  prayers, 


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277 


commemorating  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary,  listening  to  the 
words  of  truth,  worshipping  God.  And  when  you  are 
doing  that  you  are  not  wasting  time.  What  are  called 
practical  men, — that  is,  materialistic  men, — think  they 
waste  time  if  they  are  with  God. 

Remember,  the  moments  that  you  spend  in  prayer,  in 
contemplating  Scripture,  in  worship,  are  fruitful  for  eter- 
nity. You  must  not  be  contented  with  doing  this  for 
yourselves.  You  must  be  apostles,  you  must  get  others  to 
love  God,  to  perform  duty,  to  seek  to  fulfil  your  conviction. 
That  is  livmg  God.  That  is  climbing  up  to  the  love  of 
God  ; and  remember  that  as  the  creatures  could  gaze  on 
His  glory,  you  and  I can  gaze  on  His  humanity.  Jesus, 
the  founder  of  the  Sacraments,  the  Friend  of  humanity, 
the  Author  of  the  Bible,  the  Builder  of  broken  hearts,  the 
great  Sacrifice  for  our  iniquity, — He  is  the  Revealer  of 
that  awful  vision. 

Why  > He  loved  lost  women,  and  saved  them  ; little 
children  He  loved,  and  He  saved  them ; despised  not  the  rich 
man,  but  corrected  him.  He  gathered  young  and  old  to 
Him  by  the  beauty  of  His  goodness.  He  was  always 
young  although  growing  old,  always  fresh  although  the 
centuries  have  travelled  on.  And  you  and  I look  at  Him 
in  the  midst  of  our  sins,  weakness,  sorrows  ; you  and  I 
lean  on  Jesus  with  our  breaking  hearts  and  our  despairing 
fancies  ; you  and  I follow  His  example,  trying  to  do  our 
duty,  to  fulfil  our  vocation,  to  be  kind  and  tender  and  true 
and  faithful,  large  of  heart,  generous,  forgiving,  patient. 
You  and  I are  doing,  are  we  not  } something  like  that. 
We  see  the  Godhead  then  when  we  look  at  Him  and 
worship  Him.  Oh ! live  for  God ; make  your  church 
worthy  of  Him  ; make  your  offerings  worthy  of  God  ; try 
to  follow  the  example  of  God  in  Christ ; then  you  will 
feel  your  own  unworthiness,  your  own  misery  in  life  and  in 
time.  But  you  will  feel  this  certainly  and  assuredly,  that 
you  can  look  up,  with  the  creatures,  in  intellectual  satis- 
faction, with  the  spirit’s  aspiration,  with  the  love  of  the 
heart  of  the  creature,  on  Him  the  Creator.  You  may  cry, 
“O  my  God  ! my  Saviour!  Thou  art  awful  and  holy,  but 
Thou  art  a Man  and  a Brother,  a Friend,  a Helper.  I am 
broken-hearted,  sin-stricken  ; help  me  to  come  to  Jesus,  to 
persevere  in  following  Him,  to  attain  to  Him  ; that  we 


278  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


may  each  attain  to  His  blessed  side.”  And  when  we  v^ake 
up  with  Jesus,  after  this  world  of  weary  conflict,  we  shall 
indeed  be  satisfied  in  Him. 

W.  J.  K.  L. 

XXXIV.  The  Vision  of  the  Dry  Bones.  Ezek. 

xxxvii.  3.  A7id  He  said  unto  me^  Son  of  man ^ can  these 

bones  livet  And  I answered^  O Lord  God,  Thou  knowestP 

Those  who  have  read  the  book  of  the  Prophet  Ezekiel — 
and  it  is  perhaps  less  read  than  any  other  book  in  the  Old 
Testament — will  remember  this  vision  of  the  dry  bones. 
Like  many  other  visions  before  and  since,  it  is  partly 
shaped  by  the  circumstances  of  the  times.  The  horrors  of 
the  Chaldean  invasion,  which  had  resulted  in  carrying 
away  the  Jewish  people  into  Babylon,  were  still  fresh  in 
the  memories  of  men.  In  many  a valley,  on  many  a hill- 
side in  Southern  Palestine,  the  track  of  the  invading  army 
as  it  advanced  and  retired  would  have  been  marked  by  the 
bones  of  the  unoffending  but  slaughtered  peasantry.  In  a 
work  written  some  years  ago,  Mr.  Layard  has  described 
such  a scene  in  Armenia,  an  upland  valley,  covered  by  the 
bones  of  the  Christian  population  who  had  been  plundered 
and  murdered  by  Kurds.  Such  a scene  may  well  have 
suggested  to  Ezekiel  that  the  vision  was  so  shaped  as  to 
express  a truth  which  Israel  needed  to  know.  Ezekiel, 
wrapped  in  a spiritual  ecstasy,  was  set  down  in  a valley 
that  was  full  of  bones.  He  was  gazing  upon  them  round 
about,  he  marked  their  great  number,  he  marked  their 
dryness.  They  were  the  bones  of  a multitude  of  men  who 
had  been  slain  long  since.  He  was  asked  by  the  Divine 
Being,  with  whom  he  was  the  while  in  close  communion, 
“Son  of  man,  can  these  bones  live?”  Ezekiel  knew  that 
nothing  was  impossible  with  God  ; he  knew  too,  that  what 
was  possible  might  be  forbidden  by  necessities,  by  laws  of 
which  he  knew  nothing,  and  he  reverently  answered,  “ O 
Lord  God,  Thou  knowest,”  and  forthwith  he  was  made  the 
instrument  through  which  the  question  which  had  been 
put  to  him  was  answered.  “ He  said  unto  me.  Prophesy 
upon  these  bones,  and  say  unto  them,  O ye  dry  bones,  hear 
the  word  of  the  Lord.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  unto 


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279 


these  bones  ; Behold,  I will  cause  breath  to  enter  into  you, 
and  ye  shall  live : and  I will  lay  sinews  upon  you,  and 
will  bring  up  flesh  upon  you,  and  cover  you  with  skin,  and 
put  breath  in  you,  and  ye  shall  live ; and  ye  shall  know 
that  I am  the  Lord.”  And  then  Ezekiel  continues  : “ So 
I prophesied  as  I was  commanded  : and  as  I prophesied, 
there  was  a noise,  and  behold  a shaking,  and  the  bones 
came  together,  bone  to  his  bone.  And  when  I beheld,  lo, 
the  sinews  and  the  flesh  came  upon  them,  and  the  skin 
covered  them  above  : but  there  was  no  breath  in  them.” 
That  was  the  first  stage  of  the  revival ; it  was  still  incom- 
plete, something  more  was  needed,  something  which  the 
prophet  goes  on  to  describe.  “Then  said  He  unto  me, 
Prophesy  unto  the  wind,  prophesy,  son  of  man,  and  say  to 
the  wind.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ; Come  from  the 
four  winds,  O breath,  and  breathe  upon  these  slain,  that 
they  may  live.”  Then  he  continues  : So  I prophesied 

as  He  commanded  me,  and  the  breath  came  into  them, 
and  they  lived,  and  stood  up  upon  their  feet,  an  ex- 
ceeding great  army.”  That  was  the  second  stage  of  the 
revival,  and  it  is  followed  by  the  explanation  or  purpose 
of  the  vision. 

But  let  us  at  this  point  ask  ourselves  the  question,  what 
are  we  to  understand  by  the  dry  bones  of  the  vision  of 
Ezekiel.  The  dry  bones  of  Ezekiel's  vision  are  doubtless, 
to  begin  with,  the  bones  of  human  bodies,  bones  from  which 
all  the  flesh  had  been  completely  stripped  or  decayed  away 
through  exposure  to  the  air.  Ezekiel  beholds  the  working 
of  God  upon  these  bones,  he  sees  them  again  clothed  witli 
flesh,  with  sinews,  and  finally  the  breath  comes  into  them, 
and  they  live,  they  stand  on  their  feet.  This  is  plainly  a 
picture  of  a resurrection,  not,  indeed,  of  the  general  resur- 
rection, because  what  Ezekiel  saw  was  clearly  limited  and 
local,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  a sample  of  what  will  occur 
at  the  general  resurrection,  and  on  this  ground  the  passage 
is  regarded  by  the  Church  as  a proper  lesson  for  Easter 
Tuesday.  It  may  be  urged  that  this  representation  is 
presently  explained  to  refer  to  something  quite  distinct — 
namely  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  people  from  Babylon, 
and,  therefore,  that  what  passed  before  the  prophet’s  eye 
need  not  have  been  regarded  by  him  as  more  than  an 
imaginary  or  even  impossible  occurrence  intending  to 


28o  expository  sermons  and  outlines 


symbolise  a coming  event.  But  if  this  were  the  case,  the 
vision,  it  must  be  said,  was  very  ill  adapted  for  its  pro- 
posed purpose.  The  idea  of  the  restoration  from  Babylon 
was  humanly,  or  politically  speaking,  sufficiently  improb- 
able already,  without  heightening  its  existing  improbability 
by  what  is  then  supposed  to  have  been  a greater  improba- 
bility still.  Men  do  not  learn  to  accept  difficult  or  un- 
familiar truths  through  the  assistance  of  truth  still  more  un- 
familiar, still  more  difficult.  The  fact  is,  that  the  form  of 
Ezekiel's  vision,  and  the  popular  use  which  Ezekiel  made  of 
it,  shows  that  at  this  date  the  idea  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  could  not  have  been  a strange  one  to  religious  views. 
Had  it  been  so  Ezekiel’s  vision  would  have  been  turned 
against  him.  The  restoration  from  the  captivity  would  have 
been  thought  more  improbable  than  ever  if  the  measure  of 
its  improbability  was  to  be  found  in  a doctrine  unbelieved  in 
as  yet  by  the  people  of  revelation.  We  know,  in  fact,  from 
their  own  Scriptures,  that  the  Jews  had  had  for  many  a 
century,  glimpses  more  or  less  distinct  of  this  truth.  Long 
ago  the  mother  of  Samuel  could  sing  that  the  Lord  bringeth 
down  to  the  grave  and  bringeth  up  ; and  Job  could  be  sure 
that  though  worms  destroy  his  body  yet  in  his  flesh  he 
would  see  God  ; and  David,  speaking  for  a Higher  Being 
than  himself,  yet  knows  that  God  will  not  leave  His  soul  in 
hell,  nor  suffer  His  Holy  One  to  see  corruption ; and 
Daniel,  Ezekiel’s  contemporary,  or  nearly  so,  foresees  that 
many  who  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake, 
some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlasting 
contempt;”  and  later  on  the  courageous  mother  of  the  seven 
IMaccabean  martyrs  cries  to  her  dying  sons  that  “the 
Creator  of  the  world,  who  formed  the  generations  of  men, 
and  thought  out  the  beginning  of  all  things,  will  also  of  His 
mercy  give  you  life  and  breath  again,  if  you  regard  not 
yourselves  for  His  sake.”  Undoubtedly  there  was  among 
Ijie  Jews  a certain  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  a 
belief  which  this  very  vision  must  have  at  once  represented 
and  confirmed.  Men  shrink  from  admitting  the  id^a  that 
there  will  be  a resurrection  of  the  dead,  on  the  ground 
mainly  that  it  involves  an  exertion  of  Divine  power  to  which 
nothing  exactly  corresponds  within  the  range  of  everyday 
experience.  Whether  it  is  quite  right  to  make  the  range  of 
our  experience  the  measure  of  what  God  can  do  may  be 


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281 


more  than  questionable,  but  at  least  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  of  all  men  from  the  dead  involves  no  greater 
difficulty  for  a thoughtful  man  than  that  which  he  already 
encounters,  if  he  believes  seriously  in  God  at  all.  For 
belief  in  God  involves  as  a necessary  part  of  itself  a belief 
in  the  creation  cf  the  universe  out  of  nothing.  However 
you  may  multiply  the  centuries  during  which  man  is  sup- 
posed to  have  existed  on  the  surface  of  this  planet ; how- 
ever vast  may  be  the  common  tracks  of  time  which  you 
may  demand  as  theoretically  necessary  to  fill  up  the  in- 
terval between  some  primary  chaos  and  man's  first  appear- 
ance on  the  scene  ; say  what  you  will  about  the  date  of  the 
solar  system,  or  of  the  fixed  stars,  or  of  the  presumable 
history  of  their  evolution,  still  in  the  last  resort,  in  the  rear 
of  these  theories  amid  which  the  scientific  imagination  may 
run  such  splendid  riot,  the  question  of  questions  awaits 
your  answer,  it  cannot  be  ignored,  it  cannot  be  eluded — how 
did  the  original  matter  out  of  which  all  that  we  see  around 
us  itself  took  shape,  how  did  this  originally  come  to  be? 
That  is  the  question  into  which  all  others  ultimately  re- 
solve themselves,  and  upon  the  answer  which  is  given  to 
it  depends  no  less  an  issue  than  belief  or  disbelief  in  the 
existence  of  God.  For  if  you  say  that  original  uniform 
unevolved  matter  always  existed,  then  you  deny  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Being  whom  we  call  God.  God  is  nothing  if  He 
is  not  alone  everlasting,  if  He  is  not  the  source  of  all  else 
that  is,  if  He  is  not  in  His  essence  altogether  spiritually  im- 
material. If  there  existed  an  everlasting  side  by  side  with 
God,  a something  which  you  call  matter  which  is  not  Him- 
self, which  is  in  its  essence  distinct  from  Himself,  which  did 
not  owe  its  existence  to  Him,  and  which,  as  being  itself  pre- 
sumably eternal,  contradicts  the  first  law  in  nature  as  the 
source  of  all  that  is  besides  Himself,  then  God  the  Creator 
of  all  things  has  no  existence.  But  if,  having  on  dependent 
grounds  a clear  and  strong  belief  in  God,  you  deny  as  you 
must  deny  the  eternity  of  matter,  then  you  must  trace  the 
origin  of  the  raw  material  out  of  which  this  universe  has 
been  fashioned,  in  whatever  way,  back  to  God.  How  did  it 
come  from  Him  If  it  escaped  from  Him, — and  what 
would  be  this  escape  of  matter  from  the  immaterial } — if  it 
escaped  from  Him  without  or  against  His  will,  then  He  is 
no  longer  master,  not  merely  of  His  creation  but  of  Himself. 


282  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


Being  God,  He  must  have  summoned  it  into  being  by  the 
free  act  of  His  free  will.  There  is  nothing  out  of  which  to 
frame  it  and  therefore  He  must  have  summoned  it  out  of 
nothing.  There  was  vacancy, and  He  bade  the  rude  elements, 
of  matter  to  begin  to  be.  It  was  something  to  fashion  man 
out  of  the  existing  dust  of  the  earth,  but  to  give  existence 
to  the  dust  of  the  earth  when  as  yet  there  was  nothing, 
was  an  infinite  exercise  of  power.  Think,  my  brethren, 
think  what  this  means,  creation  out  of  nothing,  that  act 
which  every  thinking  and  sincere  believer  in  God  must 
necessarily  credit  Him  with,  and  then  compare  it  with  the 
relatively  puny  difficulties  which  we  are  told  ought  to  arrest 
the  hand  of  the  Great  Creator  on  the  day  of  the  general 
resurrection.  It  is  not  for  us  to  trace  His  methods  of  pro- 
cedure by  audacious  guesses,  or  to  say  how  He  will  restore 
to  each  human  body  such  of  its  proper  materials  as  may 
have  drifted  away  into  subtle  connection  with  other  forms  ; 
but  this  I take  it  is  certain  to  any  reasonable  man,  that  no 
difficulties  about  the  resurrection  of  the  body  can  seriously 
suspend  our  belief  in  it  if  we  do  believe  already  in  God  as 
really  God,  that  is  as  the  Creator,  and  believe  further  that 
He  has  told  us  that  He  will  one  day  raise  the  bodies  of  all 
men  from  the  dead. 

Ezekiel’s  vision,  then,  may  remind  us  of  wRat  Christ  our 
Lord  has  taught  us  again  and  again  in  His  own  words  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  body.  But  its  teaching  by  no  means 
ends  with  this.  For  the  dry  bones  of  Ezekiel’s  vision  may 
well  represent  the  conditions  of  societies  of  men  at  par- 
ticular times  in  their  history,  the  condition  of  nations,  of 
Churches,  of  less  important  institutions.  Indeed,  Ezekiel 
as  we  have  seen  was  left  in  no  kind  of  doubt  about  the 
divinely  intended  meaning  of  his  vision.  The  dry  bones 
were  pictures  of  what  the  Jewish  nation  believed  itself  to 
be,  as  a consequence  of  the  captivity  in  Babylon.  All  that 
was  left  of  it  could  be  best  compared  to  the  bones  of  the 
Jews  which  had  been  massacred  by  the  Chaldean  invader, 
and  which  bleached  the  hillsides  of  Palestine.  “ He  said 
unto  me,  These  bones  are  the  whole  house  of  Israel : behold, 
they  say,  Our  bones  are  dried,  and  our  hope  is  lost : we  are 
cut  off”  Certainly,  in  the  captivity  little  was  left  of  Israel 
beyond  the  skeleton  of  its  former  self.  There  were  the 
sacred  books,  there  were  royal  descendants  of  the  race  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


283 


Jacob,  there  were  priests,  there  were  prophets,  there  was 
the  old  Hebrew  and  sacred  language  not  yet  wholly  cor- 
rupted into  Chaldean,  there  were  precious  traditions  of 
the  past  great  days  of  Jerusalem, — these  were  the  dry 
bones  of  what  had  been  earlier.  There  was  nothing  to 
animate  them,  they  lay  on  the  soil  of  heathenism,  they  lay 
apart  from  each  other  as  if  quite  unconnected.  The  form 
of  the  representation  changes  as  the  explanation  succeeds 
the  vision.  They  now  lay  buried  beneath  the  soil, 
beneath  the  thick  layer  of  Pagan  life,  of  Pagan  worship,  of 
Pagan  oppression,  of  Pagan  vice,  which  buried  them  out  of 
sight  To  the  captive  people  Babylon  was  not  merely  a 
valley  of  dry  bones,  but  socially  and  politically  it  was  fatal 
to  the  corporate  life  of  Israel — Babylon  was  a grave ; ac- 
cordingly the  prophet  was  desired  to  address  his  country- 
men : “ Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ; Behold,  O my  people,  I 
will  open  your  graves,  and  cause  you  to  come  up  out  of 
your  graves,  and  bring  you  into  the  land  of  Israel.  And  ye 
shall  know  that  I am  the  Lord,  when  I have  opened  your 
graves,  O my  people,  and  brought  you  up  out  of  your 
graves.’'  And  this  is  what  actually  did  happen  at  the 
restoration  of  the  Jews  from  Babylon.  Each  of  the 
promises  in  Ezekiel’s  vision  was  fulfilled.  The  remains  of 
the  past  history,  its  sacred  books,  its  priests,  its  prophets, 
its  laws,  its  great  traditions,  its  splendid  hopes,  these  once 
more  moved  in  the  soul  of  the  nation  as  if  with  the  motion 
of  reviving  life.  They  came  together,  they  were  readjusted 
into  an  harmonious  whole,  they  received  the  clothing  of 
bone  and  sinew  which  originally  belonged  to  them.  And 
the  nation,  thus  reconstructed  in  the  days  of  its  captivity, 
was  lifted  by  the  Divine  power  out  of  its  grave,  and  restored 
to  the  upper  air  of  its  ancient  Temple  in  Palestine.  It  was 
a wonderful  restoration,  almost  if  not  altogether  unique  in 
history.  We  see  it  in  progress  in  the  119th  Psalm,  which 
doubtless  belongs  to  this  period,  which  exhibits  the  upward 
struggle  of  a sincere  and  beautiful  soul  at  the  first  dawn  of 
the  national  resurrection,  and  we  read  of  its  completion  in 
the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiaii  ; it  was  completed  when 
the  Temple,  the  centre  of  the  spiritual  and  national  life,  was 
fully  rebuilt,  and  when  the  whole  life  of  the  people  in  its 
completeness  was  thus  renewed  in  the  spot  which  had  been 
the  home  of  their  fathers  from  generation  to  generation. 


284  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


And  something  of  the  same  kind  has  been  seen  in  por- 
tions of  the  Christian  Church.  As  a whole,  we  know  the 
Church  of  Christ  cannot  fail,  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  it ; but  particular  Churches  may  fail  in 
their  different  degrees,  — national  Churches,  provincial 
Churches,  local  Churches.  These,  like  the  Seven  Churches 
in  Asia,  which  stands  as  a warning  for  all  the  ages  of 
Christendom,  these  may  experience  their  varying  degrees 
of  corruption  and  ruin  and  the  moral  insensibility  which 
precedes  death.  So  it  was  with  the  Church  of  Rome  long 
ago  even  as  the  tenth  century.  Those  who  know  the 
history  of  that  century  know  that  no  man  could  ever  have 
violated  the  spirit  and  the  law  of  Christ  more  flagrantly 
than  did  the  rulers  of  the  Roman  Church  in  that  dark  and 
miserable  age,  and  yet  this  age  was  succeeded  by  a striking 
moral  and  religious  restoration.  And  so  it  has  been,  though 
in  a somewhat  different  sense,  with  the  Church  of  England, 
and  more  than  once  since  the  Reformation. 

When  John  Keble  entered  upon  the  work  of  his  life, 
the  Church  of  England  was  to  a considerable  extent  in 
the  condition  which  answered  to  Ezekiel’s  vision  of  the 
valley  of  dry  bones.  She  had  succeeded  to  a splendid 
inheritance,  but  she  understood  her  privileges  very  im- 
perfectly. In  large  numbers  of  people  the  higher  and 
nobler  sides  of  the  Christian  life,  its  pathos,  its  fulness, 
its  risks,  its  strength,  its  capacities  for  heroism,  its  capa- 
cities for  sacrifice,  its  great  power  derived  from  com- 
munion with  the  unseen,  and  its  magnificent  prospects 
had  dwarfed  down  to  insignificance — all  that  lifts  above 
the  eye  of  sense — these  had  been  forgotten.  Then  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  had  come  to  the  Church  almost  as 
one  of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world.  The  episcopate  was 
merely  a form  of  Church  government  approved  of  by 
the  State  in  this  part  of  the  Empire ; the  sacraments 
were  old  ceremonies,  pleasing  as  a religious  sentiment, 
but  very  far  indeed  from  being  necessary  to  salvation ; 
the  Bible  was  a most  venerable  book,  but  nobody  knew 
what  presently  would  be  said  of  it ; and  as  for  the 
Prayer-Book,  it  was  described  as  a human  compilation  just 
three  hundred  years  old.  Think  of  the  case  of  a soul 
which  might  hope  from  the  echoes  of  the  Gospel  reaching 
down  the  centuries,  when  a home  had  been  found  for  it  on 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


285 


earth — a home  in  which  its  sorrows  may  be  consoled  and 
its  aspirations  encouraged,  and  then  wending  its  way  into 
the  Church  which  had  so  largely  forgotten  its  first  love  as 
this.  There  are  those  still  living  who  can  say  what  has 
happened  to  such  souls  in  that  dreary  period  ; but  it  was  the 
high  privilege  of  the  man  whom  we  are  thinking  of,  more 
perhaps  than  an}^  other  man,  to  bring  the  remedy.  Not  from 
any  position  which  of  itself  commanded  attention,  but  as 
relying  on  the  native  course  of  duty  and  majesty  of  truth, 
he  published  a collection  of  poems,  unwillingly  enough, 
which  has  had  more  effect  than  a thousand  volumes  of  a 
more  pretentious  character.  Nobody  could  think  less  highly 
of  '‘The  Christian  Year'’  than  did  its  humbleminded 
author;  and  it  was,  in  the  judgment  of  very  competent 
judges,  inferior  as  poetry  to  other  works  of  his  pen,  it  was 
merely  fugitive,  it  was  careless  of  finish,  it  was  indistinct, 
it  was  hard  to  be  understood  by  those  who  had  not  the 
key  to  understand  it.  It  was  eminently  a book  which  was 
not  made,  but  grew,  and  it  was  marked  by  the  rude  ir- 
regularities of  growth  as  distinct  from  the  polish  and  the 
finish  of  mere  manufacture.  But  underneath  its  language, 
above  and  beyond  its  literary  faults,  whatever  they  were, 
there  was  a subtle,  fine,  penetrating,  I may  almost  dare  to 
say  a Divine  spirit,  which  told  of  the  religious  genius  of  the 
spirit  of  its  author,  and  which  has  renewed  the  face  of  the 
Church  of  England.  It  breathed  through  this  book  upon 
the  dry  bones  around  it,  it  clothed  once  more  the  chief 
pastors  of  the  Church  in  the  garb  of  Apostles,  it  traced 
beneath  the  Sacraments  an  inward  grace  which  unites  to 
Christ,  which  supplied  the  point  of  view  for  reading  the 
sacred  Scriptures  intelligently,  yet  as  an  inspired  whole 
and  with  a constant  sense  of  their  profound  and  unfathom- 
able meaning.  It  lighted  up  the  Prayer-Book  as  a beautiful 
relic  of  the  past  work  of  the  Primitive  Church,  upon  which 
the  sixteenth  century,  while  removing  blemishes  and  cor- 
ruptions, has  after  all  only  lightly  laid  its  hand.  It  did  this 
after  such  a fashion  that  at  least  we  can  understand  it. 
Even  yet  we  are  too  near  the  date  of  the  publication  of 
this  book  to  take  the  correct  measure  of  all  that  it  has  done 
for  the  Christian  Church,  but  we  can  see  enough  to  be  sure 
that  through  it  breathed  the  breath  of  Heaven  by  which 
dying  Churches  are  renewed,  by  which  the  dry  bones  of 


286  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


past  ages  of  faith  and  love  are  again  clothed  upon  with  the 
substance  of  life. 

And  some  of  us  may  have  noted  a like  resurrection  in 
some  institution,  neither  as  defined  as  a Church  nor  yet 
so  broad  or  inclusive  as  a nation,  in  a school,  a college, 
a hospitable,  a charitable  building,  a company.  It  is  the 
creation,  it  is  the  relic  of  a distant  age,  it  is  magnificent 
in  its  picturesqueness,  it  lacks  alone  nothing  but  life.  It 
persists  in  statutes  that  are  no  longer  observed,  it  observes 
ceremonies  and  customs  which  have  lost  their  meaning,  it 
constantly  holds  to  a phraseology  which  tells  of  a past 
time  and  of  which  the  object  has  been  forgotten.  But 
certain  it  is  in  each  year  its  members  meet,  they  go  through 
the  accustomed  usages,  they  signalise  their  meeting  it  may 
be  by  splendid  banquets,  by  commanding  oratory,  but  in 
their  heart  of  hearts  they  know  they  are  meeting  in  a 
valley  of  dry  bones.  The  old  rules,  usages,  phrases,  dresses, 
these  are  scattered  around  them  like  the  bones  of  Ezekiel’s 
vision,  a life  which,  once  animated  and  clothed,  has  long 
since  perished  away.  They  lie  apart,  without  connection 
with  each  other,  without  attempt  at  arrangement,  without 
the  decencies  of  order,  and  the  question  is,  who  shall  bring 
them  together,  who  shall  restore  to  them  movement  and 
power,  who  shall  clothe  them  with  flesh  and  blood,  and  make 
them  once  more  what  they  might  be  } But  we  can  think, 
it  may  be,  of  cases  where  a man  has  appeared  who,  instead 
of  contemptuously  sweeping  away  all  that  the  past  has  left, 
.sets  himself  to  arrange,  to  combine,  it  may  be  to  recon- 
struct, sets  himself,  above  all,  to  invoke  that  Divine  Spirit, 
life,  and  grace  which  alone  can  restore  life  to  the  dead  and 
inaugurate  a moral  and  social  resurrection.  Before  he 
began  his  work  the  thought  came,  “ Can  these  bones  live  } 
but  believing  in  God  who  is  the  resurrection  as  well  as  the 
author  of  life,  whether  moral  or  physical,  he  went  forward. 
It  was  enough  for  him  to  say,  “ O Lord  God,  Thou 
knowest,”  and  he  heard  not  long  after  the  Divine  voice 
saying,  “ Son  of  man,  prophesy  unto  the  breath,  and  say, 
O breath,  come  into  these  bones,  that  they  may  live.'’ 

Lastly,  the  dry  bones  of  Ezekiel’s  vision  may  be  dis- 
covered, and  that  not  seldom,  within  the  human  soul. 
When  the  soul  has  lost  its  hold  of  truth  or  grace,  when  it 
has  ceased  to  believe  or  ceased  to  love  all  the  traces  of 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


287 


what  it  once  has  been,  do  not  forthwith  despair.  There 
are  survivals  of  the  old  believing  life,  fragments  and 
skeletons  of  the  old  affection,  bits  of  stray  logic  which 
once  created  phrases  that  express  the  feeling  which  once 
won  to  prayers  ; there  may  remain  amid  the  arid  desolation 
of  every  valley  full  of  dry  bones  the  aspirations  which  have 
no  goal,  the  actions  which  have  no  real  basis,  no  practical 
consequences,  the  friendships  which  we  feel  to  be  holy  and 
which  are  still  kept  up,  the  habits  which  have  lost  all 
meaning  ; we  meet  with  writers,  with  talkers,  with  historians, 
with  poets  whose  language  shows  that  they  have  once 
known  what  it  Is  to  believe,  but  for  whom  all  living  faith 
has  perished  utterly  and  left  behind  it  only  these  dried-up 
relics  of  its  former  life.  Such  may  be  the  case — partially 
at  least — of  some  who  hear  me,  such  a case  must  suggest 
the  solemn  question — Can  these  bones  live?  Can  these 
phrases,  these  forms,  these  habits,  and  these  associations 
which  once  were  part  of  the  spirit  life,  can  they  ever  again 
become  what  they  were } Is  it  worth  while  to  treasure 
them  ? Were  it  not  better,  were  it  not  more  sincere,  to  have 
done  with  them  altogether,  to  disavow  what  we  no  longer 
mean,  to  abandon  habits  of  devotion  which  have  become 
for  us  only  forms,  to  break  with  practices  of  piety  or 
benevolence  which  are  only  due  now  to  the  surviving  force 
of  habit  ? Why  keep  up  this  charnel  place  of  the  past } 
why  not  clear  it  out  and  begin  afresh  with  some  such  new 
life  as  may  now  be  possible } Brethren,  it  is  better  now, 
believe  me,  to  respect  the  dry  bones,  though  they  are  only 
the  dry  bones,  for  they  have  their  value  in  that  they  witness 
to  the  living  past,  for  they  have  their  value  in  that  they 
point  to  a possible  restoration  in  the  future.  It  is  easy 
enough  to  decry  religious  habit  as  only  habit,  as  motiveless, 
soulless,  unaccepted  service.  Doubtless  habit  which  is  only 
habit  is  not  life,  but  it  is  better,  I dare  say,  than  nothing 
at  all,  better  if  not  in  itself,  yet  surely  for  the  sake  of  that 
which  it  may  lead  on  to.  A man  may  have  ceased  to 
mean  his  prayers,  his  prayers  may  now  be  but  the  dry 
bones  of  that  warm  and  loving  communion  which  he  once 
held  with  his  God  ; but  do  not  let  him  on  that  account 
give  them  up,  do  not  let  him  break  with  the  little  that 
remains  of  what  once  was  life.  It  is  easy  enough  to  decry 
habit,  but  habit  may  be  the  scaffolding  which  saves  us 


288  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


from  a great  fall,  habit  may  be  the  arch  which  bridges  over 
a chasm  which  yawns  between  one  height  and  another  on 
our  upward  road  ; habit  without  motive  is  sufficiently  un- 
satisfactory, but  habit  is  better,  better  far,  than  nothing. 
Some  of  us  it  may  be,  surveying  the  shrivelled  elements  of 
our  religious  life,  cannot  avoid  the  question  which  comes  in 
upon  us  from  Heaven,  ‘fCan  these  bones  live?^'  they  seem  ' 
to  us,  even  in  our  best  moments,  so  hopelessly  dislocated, 
so  dry,  so  dead  ; but  to  this  question  the  answer  must 
always  be, ‘‘ O Lord  God,  Thou  knowest.''  Yes,  He  does 
know  ; He  sees,  as  He  saw  of  old  into  the  grave  of  Lazarus  ; 
He  sees  as  He  saw  into  the  tomb  of  the  Lord  Jesus;  so 
He  sees  into  the  crypts  of  a soul  of  whose  faith  and  love 
only  these  dry  bones  remain,  and  He  knows  that  life  is 
again  possible — ay,  that  it  is  much  more  than  possible, 
that  the  Word  of  His  power  may  again  clothe  with  form 
and  with  flesh,  the  breath  of  His  Spirit  may  again  impart 
animation,  warmth,  movement,  life,  the  quickening  power 
of  Christ’s  Resurrection,  from  which  all  recovery,  whether 
moral  or  social  or  physical,  must  go  forth, — this  may 
assert  itself  victoriously  in  that  desert  soul,  so  that,  like  as 
Christ  Himself  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  in  the  glory  of 
the  Father,  even  so  this  soul  shall  walk  in  newness  of  life. 

H.  P.  L. 

XXXV.  Nebuchadnezzar.  Daniel  iv.  37.  Those  that 
walk  in  pride  He  is  able  to  abase  I 

These  are  the  words  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar  on  his  re- 
storation from  the  deepest  fall,  from  the  most  fearful  exile, 
that  ever  befel  one  of  the  children  of  men.  The  chapter 
which  records  it  is  one  of  the  most  eloquent,  one  of  the 
most  pathetic  chapters  in  the  Bible.  There  is  inspiration 
in  the  sound.  If  it  were  an  allegory,  if  it  were  a parable, 
if  it  were  a poem,  it  would  still  have  the  breath  of  God  in 
it.  We  believe  it  to  be  history.  We  are  not  of  those  who 
think  lightly  of  the  testimony  of  the  Bible  till  it  can  bring 
profane  evidence  to  corroborate  it.  Well  may  it  be  said  of 
many  of  the  records  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  If 
these  should  hold  their  peace  the  very  stones  would  cry 
out.”  Again  and  again  the  stones  have  cried  out,  to  an 
incredulous  generation,  in  proof  of  a discredited  Bible  and 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


289 


a forgotten  God.  Inscriptions  of  which  the  very  language 
had  been  lost  for  ages  have  yielded  themselves  to  the  patient 
toil  of  modern  discoverers,  to  the  laborious  induction  of 
modern  philologists,  and  have  confirmed  the  Word  of  God 
in  Scripture  by  an  unsuspicious  and  unquestionable  voice 
from  the  deserts  and  ruins,  from  the  very  dens  and  caves  of 
the  earth.  If  it  has  not  yet  been  quite  so  with  the  particulars 
of  the  mysterious  eclipse  and  new  splendour  of  the  magni- 
ficent king,  whose  destiny  it  was,  in  so  many  ways,  to  cross 
the  path  of  the  theocratic  people,  and  thus  to  secure  for 
himself  unawares  a share  in  the  immortality  of  the  Bible, 
we  can  still  believe  that  somewhere  in  the  hidden  archives 
there  may  exist  such  a-  confirmation  to  be  revealed  in  due 
time  of  Him  with  whom  ‘‘a  thousand  years  are  as  one 
day  ; ” and  if  not,  the  Bible  record,  alone  and  unsupported, 
shall  suffice  for  us  : the  dream  and  the  interpretation,  the 
proud  boast  from  the  palace  roof,  and  the  voice  from  heaven 
sentencing  it,  the  alienation  and  aberration  of  the  reason, 
the  banishment  from  the  society  of  men,  till  humiliation 
has  had  its  perfect  work,  at  last  the  return  of  the  under- 
standing, and  with  it  of  the  glory  of  the  kingdom,  and  the 
tribute  paid  by  the  despot  and  the  polytheist  to  the  supreme 
power  of  the  King  of  heaven,  all  whose  works  are  truth, 
and  His  ways  judgment,  whose  hand  none  can  stay,  nor 
say  to  Him,  ‘‘  What  doest  Thou  ? ” 

A man  of  great  name  in  the  Church  of  England,  whose 
recent  departure,  in  the  fulness  of  days  and  of  good  works, 
has  been  the  signal  for  an  outburst  of  promiscuous  and 
somewhat  indiscriminating  panegyric,  from  a wider  circle 
than  that  of  his  own  party  and  following,  chose  this  book 
of  the  prophet  Daniel  some  twenty  years  ago,  to  quote  his 
own  words,  as  the  subject  of  his  contribution  against  that 
tide  of  scepticism  which  a particular  publication  had,  in 
his  opinion,  let  loose  upon  the  young  and  uninstructed 
In  his  preface  to  that  volume  of  lectures  he  used  one  ex- 
pression with  which  I think  we  shall  all  be  in  sympathy. 
“ This  has  been,”  he  says,  ‘‘  for  some  thirty  years  a deep 
conviction  of  my  soul — that  no  book  can  be  written  in 
behalf  of  the  Bible  like  the  Bible  itself.  Men’s  defences 
are  men’s  words  : they  may  help  to  beat  off  attacks  ; they 
may  draw  out  some  portion  of  its  meaning ; the  Bible 
is  God’s  Word  : through  it  God  the  Holy  Ghost  speaks 

U 


290 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


to  the  soul  which  closes  not  itself  against  it.  Let  us 
hear  that  Word  in  one  of  its  most  searching,  humbling 
utterances ; “ Those  that  walk  in  pride  God  is  able  to 
abase.'' 

I.  Pride  and  vanity.  In  one  of  our  famous  English  uni- 
versities an  annual  sermon  is  preached  on  “Pride."  No 
one  will  say  that  once  a year  is  too  often  for  a congregation, 
young  and  old,  to  be  bidden  to  meditate  on  that  thesis.  I 
propose  it  to  you  to-day,  not  being  so  presumptuous  as  to 
think  of  preaching  it  in  a formal  manner  by  definitions  and 
divisions  more  suitable  to  the  lecture-room,  but  proposing 
to  draw  one  or  two  reflections  upon  it  from  the  history  here 
opened  before  us,  and  to  ask  of  you  that  spirit  of  self-appli- 
cation, without  which,  on  such  a subject,  we  speak  and  we 
hear  in  vain. 

We  see  introduced  abruptly,  for  it  seems  to  be  the  turn- 
ing point  of  the  whole,  that  appearance  of  the  great  king 
walking  in  his  palace  of  Babylon,  and  saying,  whether  to 
himself  or  in  the  hearing  of  his  courtiers  does  not  appear, 
“ Is  not  this  great  Babylon,  that  I have  builded  by  the 
might  of  my  power,  and  for  the  honour  of  my  majesty  ? " 

Many  learned  things  have  been  said  and  written  upon 
the  nature  and  essence  of  pride.  Probably  none  of  them 
could  equal  in  depth  and  impressiveness  this  account  of 
pride-speaking,  this  repeated  pronoun,  the  personal  and 
the  possessive  : “ Great  Babylon,  that  I have  builded  by 
the  might  of  my  power,  and  for  the  honour  of  7ny  majesty." 
Whatever  other  definitions  may  be  given  of  pride,  certainly 
this  is  true  of  it,  that  it  is  the  contemplation  of  self,  a con- 
centration in  self,  the  having  self  in  the  throne  of  the  being, 
as  the  one  object  of  attention,  of  observation,  of  considera- 
tion, always,  everywhere,  and  in  all  things. 

It  is  often  assumed  that  this  attention  given  to  self  is  of 
necessity  the  contemplation  of  supposed  excellence,  that 
it  is  therefore,  so  far  as  it  is  characteristic  of  pride,  of  the 
nature  of  self-complacency,  or  self-admiration,  and  yet  some 
of  the  proudest  of  men  have  been  at  the  very  antipodes  of 
self-satisfaction. 

It  is  the  very  consciousness  of  their  own  deformity,  moral 
or  physical,  of  their  own  inferiority  in  some  prized  or 
coveted  particular  of  birth,  gift,  or  grace,  which  has  driven 
them  in  upon  themselves  in  an  unlovely  and  unloving  iso- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


291 


lation.  Self-complacency  is  not  the  only  form  of  pride. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  that  self-complacency  does  not  rather 
belong  to  the  very  different  title  of  vanity.  A beggar  may 
be  proud  ; a cripple  may  be  proud  ; failure  takes  refuge  in 
pride — even  moral  failure,  the  experience  of  perpetual 
defeat  in  that  life-battle  with  which  no  stranger  inter- 
meddles. Pride  is  self-contemplation,  but  not  necessarily 
self-admiration  ; self-absorption,  but  not  necessarily  self- 
adoration. 

It  is  not  quite  evident  from  the  words  of  King  Nebu- 
chadnezzar whether  his  besetting  sin  was  pride  or  vanity. 
Something  may  turn  upon  the  unanswerable  question 
whether  he  thought  or  whether  he  spoke  the  ‘‘  Is  not  this 
great  Babylon.^”  I think  that  vanity  always  speaks.  I 
doubt  if  the  vain  man  ever  keeps  his  vanity  to  himself.  I 
am  sure  that  pride  can  be  silent ; I am  not  sure  that  pride 
as  pride  ever  speaks.  If  I would  ascertain  which  of  the 
two  was  Nebuchadnezzar’s  failing,  I should  look  rather  to 
the  hints  dropped  first  in  the  judgment  upon  him,  and 
then  in  the  account  of  the  recovery.  From  the  one  I learn 
that  what  he  had  to  be  taught  was  that  the  heavens  do 
rule  ; from  the  other  I learn  that  he  then  first  praised  and 
honoured  Him  that  liveth  for  ever.  This  decides  me  that, 
however  pride  and  vanity  may  have  mingled  (if  they  ever 
do  mingle)  in  his  composition,  pride  was  the  differentia  ; 
that  pride  which  contemplates  self  as  the  all  in  all  of  life 
and  being,  not  necessarily  as  beautiful,  or  perfect,  or  happy; 
not  necessarily  as  satisfactory,  either  in  circumstance  or  in 
character,  but  as  practically  independent  of  all  above  and 
all  below  it— the  one  object  of  importance,  and  interest, 
and  devotion  ; knowing  neither  a superior  to  reverence,  nor 
an  inferior  to  regard.  Vanity,  though,  or  perhaps  because, 
a poorer  or  meaner  thing,  is  also  a shallower  thing,  and  less 
vital.  Vanity  may  still  be  kind,  a charity.  Vanity  may 
stil  love  and  be  loved.  Vanity,  I had  almost  said,  and  I 
will  say  it,  vanity  may  still  worship.  Vanity  does  not 
absolutely  need  to  be  taught  the  great  lesson  that  the 
Most  High  rules  in  the  kingdom  of  men,’'  or  ‘'does  accord- 
ing to  His  will  in  the  army  of  heaven.”  Pride  and  vanity 
both  ask,  " Is  not  this  great  Babylon  } ” but  vanity  asks  it 
for  applause  from  below,  pride  asks  it  in  disdain  of  One 
above. 


292 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


But  in  all  this,  brethren,  we  may  not  have  found  our  own 
likeness.  There  may  be  some,  there  may  be  many,  here 
present  who  are  not  by  natural  temperament  either  proud 
or  vain  ; and  yet  when  I think  once  again  what  pride  is,  I 
doubt  whether  any  one  is  born  without  it.  We  may  not 
dwell  complacently  upon  our  own  merits.  Certainly  we 
may  not  be  guilty  of  the  weakness  and  the  bad  taste  which 
would  parade  those  supposed  merits  before  others.  Pride 
itself  often  casts  out  vanity,  and  refuses  to  make  itself  ridi- 
culous by  saying  aloud,  “ Is  not  this  great  Babylon  ? ” 

But  the  question  is  not  whether  we  are  self-admirers, 
but  whether  we  are  self-contemplators  ; not  whether  we  are 
conceited  in  our  estimate  of  gifts  or  graces,  in  our  retro- 
spect of  attainments  or  successes,  in  our  consciousness  of 
power,  or  our  supposition  of  greatness  ; but  wTiether,  on  the 
contrary,  we  have  constantly  in  our  remembrance  the  deri- 
vation and  the  responsibility,  and  the  accountableness  of  all 
that  we  have  and  are  ; whether  there  is  a higher  presence  and 
a diviner  being  always  in  our  view,  making  it  impossible  to 
admire  or  to  adore  that  self  which  is  so  feeble  and  so  con- 
temptible in  comparison  ; whether  we  are  so  in  the  habit 
of  asking  ourselves  the  two  questions:  ‘‘What  hast  thou 
which  thou  hast  not  received  ? ” and  “ What  hast  thou  for 
which  thou  shalt  not  give  an  account  ? as  to  maintain 
always  the  attitude  of  worship,  the  attitude  of  devotion 
within,  and  this  superscription  ever  upon  the  doors  and 
gates  of  the  spiritual  being,  “Whose  I am  and  whom  I 
serve.’’ 

II.  God's  judgment  on  pride.  We  have  formed  now 
from  the  history  perhaps  some  idea  of  pride.  We  have 
heard  what  pride  says  to  itself  in  the  secrecy  of  its  solitude. 
The  same  history  shall  suggest  another  thought  or  two  about 
it,  and  the  first  of  these  is  its  penal,  its  judicial  isolation. 
“They  shall  drive  thee  from  men.”  We  are  not  going  to 
explain  away  the  literal,  or  at  least  the  substantial  fulfilment 
of  this  prophecy.  Though  it  would  be  untrue  to  say  that 
medical  history  furnishes  a complete  illustration  of  the 
judgment  threatened  and  executed  upon  King  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, yet  medical  history  does  afford  a sufficient  likeness 
of  it  to  render  the  fact,  not  credible  only,  for  that  its  being 
written  in  the  Bible  would  make  it,  but  approximately 
intelligible.  Some  grievous  forms  of  insanity  in  which  the 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


293 


sufferer  finds  himself  transfigured,  in  imagination  at  least, 
into  an  irrational  creature,  of  which  he  adopts  the  actions 
and  gestures,  the  tones  and  the  habits,  under  which,  in  that 
harsh  and  cruel  treatment  of  madness,  from  which  even 
kings  down  to  our  own  age  were  not  exempt,  the  dweller 
in  a palace  might  find  himself  exiled  from  the  society  and 
companionship  of  men.  Something  of  this  kind  may  seem 
to  be  indicated  in  this  touching  and  thrilling  description, 
and  the  use  now  to  be  made  of  it  requires  no  more  than 
this  brief  and  general  recognition  of  the  particulars  of  the 
history  from  which  it  is  drawn.  He  was  driven  from  men  : 
the  Nemesis  of  pride  is  isolation.  The  proud  man  is  placed 
alone  in  the  universe,  even  while  he  dwells  in  a home.  This 
is  a terrible  feature  ; this  is  the  condemning  brand  of  that 
self-contemplation,  that  self-concentration,  that  self-absorp- 
tion, which  we  have  thought  to  be  the  essence  of  pride. 
The  proud  man  is  driven  by  his  own  act,  even  before  judg- 
ment speaks,  if  not  from  the  presence,  if  not  from  the 
companionship,  at  least  from  the  sympathy  of  his  fellows. 
This  isolation  of  heart  and  soul  is  the  Cain-like  mark  set 
upon  the  unnaturalness  of  the  spirit  which  it  punishes.  No 
sooner  is  self  made  the  idol,  than  it  shuts  the  windows  of 
the  inner  being  alike  against  God  above  and  man  below. 
“ They  shall  drive  thee  from  men.”  Thou  hast  driven  thy- 
self from  God  ! 

Another  thought  comes  to  us  out  of  the  history.  Mark 
the  words  describing  the  recovery : “ Mine  understanding 
returned  unto  me  ; my  reason  returned  unto  me.”  What 
was  the  first  use  of  it  ? ‘‘  I blessed  the  Most  High  ; I 

praised  and  honoured  Him  that  liveth  for  ever.”  It  is 
deeply  interesting  to  notice,  and  it  fully  accords  with  the 
observations  of  medical  men,  that  the  return  of  reason  is 
here  prefaced  by  a lifting  up  of  the  eyes  to  heaven  as 
though  in  quest  of  reconciliation  and  recognition.  Yes, 
prayer  is  no  stranger  to  the  hospitals  and  asylums  of  the 
insane.  Very  pathetic  is  the  worship  offered  within  the 
the  walls  of  those  chapels  which  modern  humanity  and 
modern  science  have  combined  to  append  everywhere  to 
the  once  disconsolate  homes  of  the  disordered  and  deranged 
intellect.  “ I lifted  up  mine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  then 
mine  understanding  returned  to  me.” 

Our  moral  is,  the  pride  which  will  not  worship  is  of  itself 


294 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


an  insanity.  Worship  is  the  rational  attitude  of  the  creature 
towards  the  Creator.  Pride,  dreaming  of  independence  ; 
pride,  placing  self  where  God  ought  to  be  ; pride,  telling  of 
the  Babylon  which  it  has  builded  ; refusing  to  recognise 
any  being  above  or  below  external  to  it,  yet  possessing 
claims  upon  it,  is  a non-natural  condition.  Before  ft 
can  recover  intellect  it  must  look  upward.  The  first 
sign  of  that  recovery  will  be  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
Eternal. 

We  have  yet  one  word,  and  it  is  that  of  the  text  itself : 
‘‘Those  that  walk  in  pride  Pie  is  able  to  abase.”  Nebu- 
chadnezzar puts  it  into  his  proclamation  of  thanksgiving  : 
“ Now  I Nebuchadnezzar  praise  and  extol  and  honour  the 
King  of  heaven,  all  whose  works  are  truth,  and  His  ways 
judgment : and  those  that  walk  in  pride  He  is  able  to  abase.” 
King  Nebuchadnezzar  knew  it  by  experience  : he  had  lived 
in  ignorance,  he  had  lived  in  defiance  of  it,  he  had  reaped 
as  he  had  sown,  he  had  walked  in  pride,  he  had  been  driven 
from  men.  “ Seven  times  had  passed  over  him.”  Not  till 
he  lifted  his  eyes  to  heaven,  not  till  he  knew  that  self  was 
not  all,  did  reason  return  to  him.  Honour  and  brightness 
came  back  with  it.  His  counsellors  and  his  lords  sought 
him.  We  in  England  know,  by  tradition  at  least,  what  the 
rejoicings  are  when  a monarch  recovers  his  understanding, 
though  there  may  have  been  no  judgment  in  that  insanity 
which  was  the  calamity  and  the  sorrow  of  an  earlier  genera- 
tion of  Englishmen.  Nebuchadnezzar  may  have  meant  only 
to  enthrone  the  God  of  heaven  as  one  God,  though  the  chief 
God,  of  the  crowded  Pantheon.  That  is  nothing  to  us  now. 
We  can  read  his  words  and  put  our  own  construction  : 
“Those  that  walk  in  pride  He  is  able  to  abase.”  Solemn, 
awful,  terrible  confession  ; verified  day  by  day  in  history, 
not  modern  only,  but  of  to-day!  How  often  in  our  ex 
perience  has  a proud  man,  quite  apart  from  act  or  deed  of 
his  own,  found  himself  under  a treatment  but  too  nicely 
calculated  to  humble  him  1 How  often  has  a rich  man, 
building  his  house  on  the  winnings  of  chance  or  of  specu- 
lation, found  to  his  discomfiture  that  he  has  built  it  upon 
the  sand  ! How  often  has  a selfish  man,  having  but  one 
tender  spot  or  two  in  his  whole  moulding  and  making,  staked 
his  very  life,  we  will  say,  upon  two  well-beloved  sons,  and 
then  found,  to  use  the  Scripture  similitude,  that  he  has 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


295 


‘‘  laid  the  foundation  of  his  prosperity  in  the  first-born  and 
set  up  the  gates  thereof  in  the  younger/’  to  see  them  cut 
off  successively  in  the  very  moment  of  triumph  by  sharp 
sickness  or  by  sudden  accident ! How  often  has  a profes- 
sional man,  on  the  eve  of  the  last  step  to  greatness,  developed 
some  fatal  symptoms  of  palsy,  or  consumption,  which  made 
him  bid  farewell  to  all  his  glory,  and  betake  himself  to  his 
last  gloomy  home ! How  often  has  a statesman,  brought 
by  the  last  turn  of  the  wheel  of  politics  to  the  very 
summit  of  his  ambition,  been  laid  low  by  the  impor- 
tunate stroke  of  a jealous  and  envious  rivalry,  and  com- 
pelled to  exchange  earth  for  the  melancholy  Pantheon 
of  posthumous  fame ! 

But,  brethren,  these  are  great  cases,  illustrious  examples. 
Let  us  descend  to  our  own  level  “ Those  that  walk  in 
pride  ” are  of  all  ranks,  and  the  possible  abasement  also 
has  all  ranks  for  its  victims.  Who  shall  tell  the  mortifi- 
cations of  pride  which  befal  it  ? Every  day  of  pride  is  a 
day  of  disappointment.  The  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands who  are  living  without  God  in  the  world,  self-con- 
templating, self-concentrating  on  the  smallest  and  most 
microscopic  scale,  offering  to  their  idol,  self,  the  poorest 
and  humblest  of  oblations — the  mere  chance  invitation  to 
dinner,  or  supper,  of  the  mortal  creature  man  or  woman 
that  is  but  one  half-step  above  them  on  the  social  ladder, 
or  the  hollow,  unmeant  compliment  of  one  whose  blame 
would  have  been  more  honourable  ; what  a life  of  abasement 
is  theirs,  themselves  almost  being  the  judges  ! How  many 
slights  for  one  salute  ! How  many  rebuffs  for  one  recog- 
nition ! What  a life  ! Abasement  is  the  word  for  it,  even 
in  its  triumphs.  That  climbing  itself  is  grovelling — that 
pushing  is  itself  repulse. 

But  instead  of  dwelling  upon  the  shame  and  contempt 
of  all  this,  let  us  think  rather  of  the  merciful  design  which 
works  in  it.  This  king,  this  lord  of  the  world’s  empire 
that  then  was,  is  thrust  down  from  his  throne,  driven  from 
men,  made  “ to  eat  grass  like  the  ox  till  seven  times  pass 
over  him.”  You  would  call  this  a cruel  and  pitiless  fate  for 
him.  You  would  say  that  there  was  nothing  but  punish- 
ment, nothing  but  judgment  in  it.  But  so  did  not  he. 
When  his  reason  returned  to  him,  he  praised  and  blessed 
God  for  his  humiliation.  He  knew  now  that  “ the  heavens 


296  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


do  rule.’*  Men  and  women  walking  in  pride,  having  self 
for  your  aim,  and  self  for  your  idol,  pray  God  to  break  that 
idol  in  pieces  before  your  face.  Pray  God  to  make  you 
know  and  feel  that  “ the  heavens  do  rule.”  That  is  humility, 
the  opposite  and  antithesis  of  pride,  not  to  think  abjectly 
of  self,  but  to  have  a loving  consciousness  of  One  greater, 
and  better,  and  nobler. 

Is  not  that  a lesson  worth  any  sacrifice,  or  any  suffering 
in  the  learning } What  would  earth  be  if  each  form  of 
flesh  and  blood  were  self-centred,  and  self-absorbed,  elbow- 
ing its  own  way  to  the  rewards,  and  luxuries,  and  the 
honours  of  earth  } Where,  then,  would  be  either  piety  or 
charity,  where  the  sweet  harmonies  of  souls  at  peace  with 
God,  where  the  gracious  influence  of  hearts,  loving  and 
loved  } Let  us  not  resent,  let  us  rather  invite  that  abasing 
which  brings  back  the  walker  in  pride  to  a truer  under- 
standing of  himself  and  of  his  position.  What  hour  of 
earth  is  comparable  to  that  in  its  sense  of  reality,  and  in 
its  consciousness  of  safety,  which  has  made  us  feel  that  all 
we  have  and  all  we  are  is  of  God  alone,  and  that  He  of 
His  infinite  love  and  mercy  has  taken  us  for  His  forgiven 
children  in  Jesus  Christ,  all  our  sins  laid  upon  Him, 
and  an  inheritance  of  joy  and  glory  reserved  for  us  in 
heaven  ? 

Brethren,  one  depth  of  uttermost  abasement  there  is 
before  each  of  us.  It  is  the  hour  of  death  ; it  is  the  day 
of  judgment.  The  very  approach  of  that  hour  is  humilia- 
tion ; the  gradual  decay  of  the  brightness  of  the  intellect, 
the  slow  recollection,  the  faltering  speech,  the  growing 
tardiness  of  step  and  motion,  at  last  the  absolute  helpless- 
ness, the  stretching  forth  of  the  hands  for  another  to  guide, 
and  then  the  being  bound  hand  and  foot  by  another  with 
graveclothcs,  the  being  carried  forth  stiff  and  stupid,  and 
laid  with  our  forefathers  to  see  corruption.  How  shall 
mortal  man  be  proud  for  whom  this  is  the  last  exit } But 
oh,  to  wake  up  in  a world  unrealized,  amidst  countless 
generations  clad  in  bodies,  not  natural  but  spiritual,  to  find 
ourselves  face  to  face  with  a Saviour  never  before  known, 
or  capable  of  being  known,  in  His  glory,  who  is  now  ready 
to  confess  or  deny  us  according  as  we  in  that  former  state 
of  being  have  confessed  or  denied  Him  ! How  shall  mortal 
man  be  proud  before  whom  lies  this  dread  ordeal  } Happy 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


297 


is  he  who  has  so  accepted  here  the  Divine  abasing  that  he 
may  receive  there  the  benediction  which  has  all  honour  and 
all  exaltation  in  it,  “ Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.” 

C J.  V. 

XXXVI.  Daniel  among  the  Lions.  Daniel  vi.  22. 

God  hath  sent  His  angel ^ and  hath  shut  the  liond  mouths^ 
that  they  have  not  hurt  meT 

Try  to  realize  old  Babylon.  Try  to  spirit  your  thoughts 
from  this  place  to  that,  from  this  time  to  that.  That 
great  and  glowing  wonder  we  can  hardly  believe  was 
ever  alive  when  we  wander  with  step  or  with  thought  over 
the  secrecy  and  the  silence  and  the  darkness  of  the  spot 
where  the  glory  once  lived.  But  now,  forget  familiar  faces 
and  familiar  voices,  and  live  back  in  that  Babylon,  and 
try  to  feel  as  if  you  were  there  at  the  time  when  Daniel 
was  alive. 

If  you  are  making  that  effort  of  imagination,  if  you  are 
ready,  I ask  you  now  to  go  with  me  first  into  a royal  palace 
there  and  watch  the  workings  of  a strange  conspiracy  ; in 
the  next  place,  I would  ask  you  to  go  to  a private  house 
there,  to  see  the  object  of  that  conspiracy  ; and  next  I ask 
you  to  go  look  at  the  lions’  den,  to  see  the  end  of  that  con- 
spiracy. 

I.  The  conspirators.  First  go  to  the  palace.  Who  is  the 
king  } An  old  forgotten  king.  I say  forgotten,  for  he  would 
not  be  owned  now  if  he  had  not  happened  to  keep  lions, 
and  if  there  had  not  happened  to  be  present  near  him 
some  who  wanted  to  make  those  lions  terrible  instruments 
of  death  to  Daniel.  He  was  a most  mean  king.  He 
was  nothing  in  himself.  There  was  no  nobility  ; there 
was  no  kinghood  in  him.  He  was  only  circumstantially 
conspicuous  ; he  was  essentially  obscure.  His  little  name 
comes  down  the  stream  of  time  on  the  raft  of  Daniel’s 
story.  Crown  though  he  wore,  and  a sceptre  though 
he  wielded,  he  was  only  an  incidental  creature — a tool, 
not  an  agent ; a thing,  not  a man.  Why,  we  are  not 
even  sure  that  his  name  was  Darius.  There  is  no  unani- 
mous and  absolute  certainty  of  vote  on  that  subject,  for 


298  EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


Darius  is  not  the  name  of  an  individual  ; it  is  not  a 
personal  name,  but  an  official  name.  We  just  know  from 
historical  notices  of  him  that  he  was  a sensualist,  and 
nothing  stamps  the  spark  divine  out  of  a man  like  sen- 
suality. There  was  once  an  epitaph  written — a ‘‘Sybarite 
Epitaph.”  It  was  said  of  a man  that  he  could  eat  well,  and 
drink  well,  and  sleep  well,  and  he  died.  That  might  have 
been  his  epitaph.  I will  not  dwell  upon  him.  It  seems 
that  just  at  this  time  Cyrus  was  the  real  ruler,  but  he  was 
away.  Just  after  the  Medo-Persian  work  of  conquest,  Cyrus 
was  the  real  ruler,  and  this  old  man  called  Darius  was  the 
uncle  of  Cyrus,  and  he  was  left  in  charge.  Now  remember 
that  you  are  still  in  the  palace  where  this  Darius  lives.  You 
will  see  coming  into  the  palace  an  influential  deputation,  a 
great  number  of  satraps,  governors,  and  princes,  speaking  to 
the  king  with  falsetto  tones  of  simulated  reverence.  They 
ask  him  to  make  a law  to  this  effect — that  no  man  shall 
within  thirty  days  make  a request  to  God  or  men  save  of 
the  king  ; that  if  he  should  do  so,  he  be  cast  into  the  den 
of  lions.  What  an  enormous  extravagance  ! If  the  sun 
should  burn  the  land,  there  must  be  no  request  made  to 
the  Lord  of  the  elements  for  rain.  If  pestilence  should 
blast  the  people,  there  must  be  no  request  of  Him  to  send 
powers  of  healing,  or  to  come  between  the  living  and  the 
dead  for  the  plague  to  be  stayed.  If  a fire  should  break 
out,  there  must  be  no  request  to  a man  to  help  to  put  the 
fire  out.  If  a person  were  to  be  ill,  there  must  be  no  re- 
quest to  a physician  to  prescribe.  If  a person  should  be 
drowning,  there  should  be  no  request  to  the  man  on  the 
shore  to  fling  a rope  and  help  the  sufferer  out  of  the  water. 
If  any  wrong  had  been  done,  there  must  be  no  request  for 
forgiveness.  If  the  mysterious  spirits  supposed  to  dwell 
in  stone  should  thunder  and  lighten  at  any  suspense  to 
their  worship,  there  was  to  be  no  request,  even  then, 
that  these  gods  should  wait  with  patience  until  the  time 
was  up. 

Now,  he  is  just  like  the  man  I have  described.  There 
is  no  hesitation,  no  word  of  inquiry,  no  word  of  surprise, 
no  word  of  resentment ; they  catch  the  fly  in  their  web. 
He  seems  to  say  in  spirit,  “ Let  me  alone.  Do  what 
you  like,  only  let  me  be  quiet.”  That  was  the  very  spirit 
of  the  man. 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


299 


II.  In  the  next  place,  leaving  this  palace  and  those 
who  were  making  this  conspiracy,  let  us  go  into  a pri- 
vate house  in  Babylon  and  mark  the  object  of  the  con- 
spiracy. Who  is  it  ? Daniel.  And  what  is  it  for  ? It  is 
difficult  to  say — impossible  to  say — with  any  clearness  of 
reason,  or  with  any  show  of  right.  They  hated  him ; 
but  it  was  said  of  Jesus,  “They  hated  Him  without  a 
cause.”  It  is  in  the  nature  of  the  carnal  mind  ever  to  hate 
God  ; and  so  it  hates  that  which  has  God  in  it.  They 
hated  this  man  on  account  of  his  faith.  Amidst  the  rabble 
of  deities,  gods  and  goddesses,  with  all  their  splendour  and 
all  their  circumstantial  authority,  in  Babylon,  he  was  true 
to  his  worship  of  the  one  living  God  ; true  to  Jehovah,  and 
true  to  the  covenant  ; true  to  the  counsel  of  God.  which 
was  then  working  under  all  events,  and  from  time  to  time 
flashing  up  through  all  secrecies,  giving  hints  of  what  was 
understood  to  be  when  Christ  Himself  would  come ; and 
the  mighty  spirit  of  revelation  rose  in  the  soul  of  Daniel. 
While  he  was  believing,  he  was  lifted  up  in  thought  to  an 
immense  height,  commanding  a view  of  after  ages  ; and 
surely  he,  like  Abraham,  saw  Christ’s  day,  saw  it  afar  off, 
“saw  it  and  was  glad.”  If  you  look  at  some  of  the  passages 
in  the  9th  chapter  of  Daniel,  you  will  find  that  he  used  words 
about  the  coming  Christ  such  as  Paul  himself  might  have 
used.  He  was  coming  “ to  make  reconciliation  for  trans- 
gression,” coming  to  “ make  an  end  of  sin,”  coming  to 
“ bring  in  everlasting  righteousness.”  So  Daniel  was  hated 
for  his  strange,  holy,  eccentric  faith  ; he  was  hated  for  the 
life  that  sprang  out  of  faith.  Men  did  not  like  that  life. 
When  that  life  is  the  life  of  wealthy  or  influential  or 
scholastic  Christians,  they  put  up  with  it ; they  speak  with 
respect  of  the  wealth  or  the  influence  or  the  scholarship, 
and  they  put  up  with  the  grace  of  God  working  through 
these. 

Now,  in  all  ages  it  has  been  just  so.  There  was  in 
Daniel’s  life  nothing  that  ought  to  have  excited  hatred  ; 
even  amongst  human  immoralities  it  was  irreproachable ; 
there  was  no  fraud  ; there  was  no  bribery  ; he  was  abste- 
mious ; he  was  righteous  ; he  was  courteous,  living  like  one 
who  lived  at  court — the  court  of  the  King  of  kings,  where 
every  Christian  ought  to  live  and  ought  to  show  the  influ- 
ence of  atmosphere,  the  nameless  grace  of  patrician  calm- 


300 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


ness  and  patrician  influence,  of  lovely  winning  manner  that 
comes  of  a heart  that  belongs  to  God.  It  was  so  with 
Daniel,  and  it  was  so  in  the  time  of  his  early  youth.  He 
was  the  child  of  a very  poor  family,  and  the  pride  of  his 
father  and  mother — ripe,  beautiful,  bounding— when  he  was 
snatched  away  from  them— taken  away  right  into  Babylon, 
for  them  never  to  see  him  more ; and  now  he  was  an  old 
man,  very  old,  like  a shock  of  corn  fully  ripe  ; and  all 
throughout  he  had  maintained  his  steadfastness  of  holy 
life ; and  they  hated  that  holy  life.  They  hated  him  also 
because  he  was  a man  of  rare  gifts  ; they  sickened  with 
envy  at  the  sight  of  those  rare  gifts.  He  was  remarkable 
for  his  wisdom  when  young,  so  that  Ezekiel,  when  speak- 
ing of  Dives  personified,  said  ironically,  ‘‘  Thou  art  wiser 
than  Daniel.”  He  belonged  by  presidency  to  the  Magi — 
not  to  the  sacerdotal,  but  to  the  scientific  order.  He  was 
a thinker  ; he  was  gloriously  educated  ; he  was  an  influ- 
ential man,  naturally,  supernaturally,  and  educationally. 
They  hated  that ; they  hated  the  distinctions  and  gifts  of 
one  who  eclipsed  them  ; they  hated  him,  too,  for  his  supre- 
macy in  office. 

You  may  read  in  this  chapter  how  Darius  divided  the 
empire.  I believe  1 20  provinces  were  parted  out,  and  there 
were  three  presidents  over  these.  Daniel  was  the  president 
of  the  presidents — not  a native  noble  ; he  was  higher  than 
the  native  nobility  ; and  they  reared  their  stately  crests  ; 
they  were  haughtily  proud  ; they  resented  this  altogether  ; 
they  looked  right  and  left,  in  and  out,  for  something  which 
should  be  fatal  in  its  discovery  and  presentment,  fatal  to 
Daniel.  They  could  find  nothing.  He  was  not  violent ; 
he  was  not  cruel.  There  was  no  defalcation  ; the  accounts 
were  all  right.  There  was  perfect  stainlessness  as  to 
bribery  ; but  there  was  this  one  thing — he  prayed.  And  it 
was  an  open  prayer.  Every  one  knew  it,  for  he  threw  his 
windows  open  every  day  three  times.  He  was  most  metho- 
dical in  his  prayers,  and  he  turned  towards  Jerusalem.  I 
think  he  built  his  house  with  his  windows  that  side  on 
purpose.  Jerusalem  was  the  place  of  the  mercy-seat;  Jeru- 
salem was  the  place  where  the  footsteps  cf  God’s  glory  had 
been  seen,  where  the  voice  of  His  love  had  been  heard.  It 
was  the  scene  of  his  prophecies.  He  turned  that  way,  and 
that  was  his  way  of  expressing  his  faith  in  that  great  sacri- 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, 


301 


fice  and  that  exalted  Saviour  who  was  typified  by  all  that 
was  done  from  age  to  age  at  Jerusalem;  and  because  of  this 
they  invented  this  remarkably  ingenious  conspiracy,  a 
conspiracy  that  was  sure  to  catch  this  man.  He  was 
sure  to  pray. 

In  the  next  place,  notice  the  effect  of  this  conspiracy. 
The  effect  of  this  conspiracy  in  the  first  place  was  to  bring 
out  Daniel’s  confession.  My  subject  is  a Hebrew  confessor. 
This  is  one  of  the  grand  Hebrew  confessors  who,  lifted  up 
above  the  mists  of  time,  are  for  you  to  see,  living  in  this 
Christian  age,  and  who  are  to  be  conspicuous  as  our 
examples  to  the  very  end  of  time.  He  knew  that  the  writ- 
ing had  been  signed.  What  then  } Was  he  politic  ? There 
are  many  things  that  I think  you  might  have  said  if  you 
had  been  there.  I wonder  what  the  effect  would  be  if  such 
a law  as  this  could  be  possible  in  any  land  where  you  live. 
Would  it  make  any  difference  to  the  prayer  meetings?  I am 
afraid  not  much.  I think  it  would  make  some  difference, 
however,  if  your  habit  of  prayer  had  been  in  form  like  that 
of  Daniel’s.  He  might  have  said,  “ Well,  I shall  pray,  but  I 
shall  shut  the  windows.”  That  mere  question  of  open  and 
shut  as  to  the  windows  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  question 
of  prayer  or  no  prayer.  ‘H  shall  pray,  but  I think  not  in 
that  room.”  There  are  other  rooms  not  so  conspicuous. 
Prayer  in  a cellar  will  be  just  as  acceptable  to  Him  who 
is  on  the  throne  of  thrones  as  prayer  in  the  most  splendid 
apartment.  He  said,  or  he  would  have  said,  or  might  have 
said,  “ I will  pray,  but  I need  not  pray  with  the  lip.  God 
looks  not  at  the  lip,  but  at  the  life.  It  is  not  what  we  say, 
but  what  we  mean. 

“ ‘ Prayer  is  the  burden  of  a sigh, 

The  falling  of  a tear, 

The  upward  glancing  of  an  eye, 

When  none  but  God  is  near.^” 

Or  perhaps  he  might  have  said,  I will  pray,  but  not 
with  such  order,  such  method.”  Now,  apply  this  to  your 
own  circumstances.  You  who  are  young  Christians,  I 
beseech  to  make  a good  confession  in  this  respect.  I know 
that  in  early  life,  when  you  are  in  the  early  stages  of  a 
profession  or  trade,  or  when  you  are  at  school  or  college, 
you  may  have  even  to  carry  on  your  private  prayer  in  the 


302 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


view  of  others,  and  I know  what  young  life  is.  I know 
who  has  the  majority  of  votes ; I know  the  tendency  to 
scorn  that  which  is  Christian,  and  that  which  is  outspoken 
in  Christian  life  ; and  I fear  for  some  of  you.  I fear  lest 
you  should  be  laughed  out  of  your  prayers.  I am  speaking 
as  plainly  as  I can,  for  I want  every  one  to  understand  me 
— every  child  who  is  not  yet  in  public  life  or  school.  I 
want  every  one  to  get  ready  ; and  although  prayer  is  not 
a matter  of  form,  although  it  is  a thing  of  the  life,  although 
you  may  pray  when  you  say  nothing,  I beseech  you  not  to 
let  go  prayer.  Not  only  do  I say  you  must  not  let  go  the 
spirit,  but  do  not  let  go  the  form  ; do  not  let  go  the  method 
and  the  rule  ; for  in  this  life  we  are  such  creatures  of  rule 
and  form  and  method,  that  it  is  dangerous  to  give  way  in 
these  outworks  and  these  machineries  ; for  much  that  is 
vital  is  connected  with  much  that  is  external,  and  I pray 
you  to  be  like  Daniel.  Stand  to  it,  and  show  that  you  are 
like  Christ  not  only  by  joining  a Church,  but  being  stead- 
fast and  immovable,  always  abounding  in  prayer  at  the 
right  time.  Never  give  up ; keep  on  praying,  and  pray 
without  ceasing  in  spirit.  But,  besides  that,  have  special 
definite  terms,  and  times,  and  forms.  Keep  on  with  your 
confession  and  your  prayers  till  you  win.  Daniel  did  so. 
Was  he  a man  that  would  alter  his  conduct  towards  God 
in  consequence  of  the  conduct  of  an  insect  towards  him- 
self? Oh,  but  he  is  great.  He  keeps  on,  whatever  may 
be  said  about  him.  And  do  not  we  see  amidst  the  great 
movements  of  the  actual  world,  symbols  and  emblems  of 
what  I want  to  assert  now  } You  find  that  the  sun  shines 
whether  you  look  or  not.  He  never  waits  for  your  appro- 
bation^ never  asks  for  your  praise.  He  shines  on,  whether 
you  open  your  eyes  or  shut  your  eyes.  The  sea  rolls  on  in 
tranquil  majesty,  without  waiting  for  you  to  look  or  not 
look ; and  the  great  peaks  and  mountains  of  the  world  rear 
their  heads  in  wintry  grandeur  crowned,  whether  you  look 
or  do  not  look.  And  so  the  great  spirits,  men  of  great 
principle,  do  the  same.  They  are  not  waiting  to  know 
what  man  thinks.  Daniel  did  not  wait  to  ask  who  was 
looking.  What  did  he  care  about  that  ? There  was  no 
ostentation  ; there  was  no  bluster  ; there  was  no  saying, 
‘‘  Now,  I have  determined  to  stand  my  ground  and  assert 
my  principles.  I am  determined  to  say,  and  do,  and  die 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


305 


and  I care  nothing  about  these  creatures  of  a day,  these 
reptiles  of  a court  I shall  still  hold  on  my  way,  and  I 
know  I shall  wax  stronger  and  stronger.’'  But  there  was 
no  such  boast  ; there  was  no  boasting  at  all  ; there  was  no 
effort  about  it  He  simply  kept  on  with  his  confessor- 
ship. 

Passing  on  to  the  issue  of  this  conspiracy,  to  tell  you 
fully,  I must  tell  you  further.  See  Daniel,  in  consequence 
of  this  confession,  thrown  to  the  lions.  In  the  heroic  age 
of  Christianity,  when  in  all  likelihood  to  be  a Christian 
meant  to  be  some  day  a martyr,  Christians  were  often 
seen  to  drop  on  the  red  sawdust  at  the  stroke  of  a lion. 
Once  (it  was  in  the  days  of  Diocletian)  there  was  a youth 
named  Pancratius  who  had  in  the  beginning  of  life  vast 
and  romantic  possibilities  of  earthly  greatness,  but  he 
became  a Christian,  and  that  implied  the  probability  of 
soon  being  flung  to  the  lions.  It  might  have  been  said  to 
him,  ‘‘What  a pity  you  should  do  so!  You  will  be  so 
rich,  and  you  will  do  so  much  good.  Think  of  your  useful- 
ness, think  of  what  you  are  throwing  away,  think  of  your 
mother,  think  of  your  father,  think  of  the  Christians  whom 
you  might  serve  if  you  kept  your  Christianity  still  for  a 
while.  No  doubt  it  is  right  in  the  abstract  to  be  a Christ- 
ian ; but  you  will  not  throw  your  life  away  for  an  ab- 
straction. It  is  right  in  itself  to  be  baptized,  but  baptism 
is  only  a sign  ; Christ  is  the  thing  signified.  You  may 
have  the  thing  signified  without  the  sign.  It  is,  all  things 
being  equal,  right  to  make  a confession  before  men  of  your 
faith  in  Christ,  but  Christ  looks  not  at  what  you  say  or  at 
what  you  are  ; He  judges  not  by  the  label,  but  by  the  life. 
No  doubt  it  is  right,  when  all  things  are  equal  and  fair, 
to  come  out,  as  you  propose  to  come  out  ; but  oh ! say 
nothing  now!  say  nothing  now;  be  still,  hold  your  faith 
in  the  dark  ; the  time  will  come  when  it  may  appear  in  the 
light.”  But  Pancratius  saw  in  the  clear  daylight  of  truth 
that  he  was  to  believe,  and  then  that  he  was,  as  a matter  of 
course,  to  confess  that  faith.  So  he  believed  and  did  con- 
fess, and  he  was  sentenced  to  the  lions.  There  came  a day 
when  a hundred  Christians  were  sentenced  to  the  lion.s, 
and  this  young  Christian  was  to  come  last.  See  him  ! oh ! 
look  at  him,  the  little,  slim  youth — for  he  was  only  a youth  ; 
see  him  there  standing  in  the  amphitheatre,  with  some 


304 


EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


25,000  people  all  round  him,  like  one  scared.  There  they 
are,  ring  above  ring ; there  they  are,  all  round  him  when 
he  stands  there  ; and  presently  there  is  a great  rattle  in 
the  far  distance,  and  out  from  that  cage  springs  a lion,  and 
he  slips  and  wanders  about.  At  last  he  sees  the  youth  ; 
he  seems  at  once  still  as  a stone ; he  burns,  as  it  seems, 
into  terrible  beauty ; then  he  drops  on  to  the  sand,  and 
looks  at  him  at  a distance — looks  and  looks  at  him  ; then 
he  trails,  and  trails,  and  trails,  gets  nearer,  and  nearer,  and 
nearer,  walks  round,  and  round,  and  round,  and  stops  ; 
round  again— stops  ; and  then,  with  a bound  and  a blow, 
and  a flash  of  black  lightning,  down  he  drops  on  to  that 
quivering  young  life ; there  is  a moment's  paralysis,  and 
then  the  sacred,  high,  eternal  noon." 

We  ought  not  to  think  of  our  lions  : they  are  chained. 
Would  you  be  ready,  if  the  call  were  to  come  forth  to  the 
lions  for  Christ’s  sake,  would  you  be  ready  } There  is 
none  of  us  feel  ready  now  ; but  if  we  do  trust  Christ,  we 
who  do  trust  Him  now,  we  shall  be  ready  whenever  that 
call  shall  come.  Daniel  was  ready  for  the  lions  that  were 
set  about  him  ; and  to  the  lions  he  was  hustled,  to  the 
lions  he  was  flung. 

Now,  under  this  last  head,  one  more  remark.  Think  of 
the  night  Daniel  had  with  the  lions — the  night  and  the 
morning.  The  night ! Did  you  ever  dream  of  such  a 
thing  as  that  ? Night  is  the  time  for  rest ; day  is  for 
action.  If  in  the  day  we  court  peril,  in  the  night  we  seek 
repose  ; if  in  the  day  we  like  to  be  abroad,  at  night  we  like 
to  be  at  home ; in  the  day  our  Heavenly  Father,  whose 
other  name  is  Love,  surrounds  us  with  light,  vivacity,  and 
movement,  and  everything  that  can  inspire  thought,  rouse 
activity,  and  stimulate  the  Divine  ; but  when  the  night 
comes,  He  hushes  the  sounds,  puts  the  lights  out,  stops  the 
songs  of  birds,  draws  the  curtains  of  tender  darkness,  and 
says,  Hush  !’’  and  with  a love  beyond  all  conception, 
more  exquisite  and  tender  than  ever  love  was  that  ever 
rocked  a cradle  or  sang  the  cradle’s  song.  He  gives  us  and 
all  His  ‘'beloved  sleep.’’  Nights  we  have  heard  of  have 
been  spent  in  fasting  and  amidst  the  incongruities.  We  have 
heard  of  a night  passed  amidst  the  silence  and  shadows  of 
Westminster  Abbey  ; we  have  heard  of  a night  passed 
alone  on  a spar  in  the  sea  ; we  have  heard  of  a night  passed 


ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


305 


by  one  who  was  lost  amidst  the  snows  of  Salisbury  Plain  ; 
we  have  heard  of  a night  passed  amongst  the  lions — 
amongst  these  terrible  lions.  But  God  sent  His  angel 
to  stop  the  lions  mouths ; and  you  may  imagine  their 
bland,  caressing  movements,  as  John  Foster  has  it,  round 
Daniel  just  as  they  used  to  be  round  Adam  in  Paradise. 
So  in  the  morning  when  the  cry  came,  “ Daniel  ! Daniel ! 
servant  of  the  living  God,  is  He  able — -the  God  whom  thou 
servest  continually — to  keep  thee  alive,  to  keep  thee  from 
the  lions?  are  you  alive?”  You  know  what  the  answer 
was.  My  text  is  the  answer — Daniel  lived.  Daniel  lives 
now, — lives  in  heaven,  lives  in  this  Book,  and  lives  for  you. 
You  are  not  placed  in  similar  circumstances,  but  every  one 
of  you  is  tried  sometimes  to  the  fullest  extent  of  your 
powers.  You  have  lions  of  some  kind  to  face;  and  oh,  I 
beseech  you,  open  your  windows  towards  Calvary,  open 
your  windows  towards  the  great  sacrifice.  Look  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  ; let  your  hopes  be  there  ; draw  your  light  from 
thence.  Be  real  Christians,  making  the  solemn  vow  of 
consecration,  first  alone,  and  giving  yourselves  right  up 
to  Jesus  when  no  one  sees  you.  Then  come  out — come 
out  from  the  world,  out  from  the  laughers,  out  from  those 
who  are  making  their  way  and  getting  their  fortune  and 
their  influence,  perhaps,  by  compromise ; perhaps  by  in- 
definiteness. Be  distinct ; be  decisive ; let  every  one  who 
sees  you  know  what  you  are,  and  know  what  Christ  can 
do  for  you.  You  know  that  He  whom  you  serve  is  able 
to  give,  able  to  teach,  able  to  sustain,  able  to  console,  able 
to  do  above  all  that  you  can  ask  or  think. 


C.  S. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS, 


Abraham,  25. 

Abraham’s  Death,  30. 

Balaam,  63. 

Barak’s  Faith,  89. 

Captain  of  the  Lord’s  Host,  The, 
82. 

Captives  of  Babylon,  The,  248. 
Cry  of  the  Creatures,  The,  268. 

David,  loi, 

Daniel  among  the  Lions,  297. 
David  in  the  Psalms,  The 
Preaching  of,  217. 

Elijah’s  Faith,  The  Failure  of, 

III. 

Elijah’s  Flight,  121. 

Enoch,  I. 

Isaac,  39. 

Jacob  at  Bethel,  45, 

Jacob’s  Death,  50. 


Job,  155. 

Job,  The  Book  of,  166,  175,  184, 
194,  202. 

Joshua,  75. 

Josiah,  146. 

King  Conquered,  The,  134. 

Marah,  The  Waters  of,  58. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  288. 

New  Year,  A Song  for  the,  242. 
Noah,  9. 

Penitence,  224. 

Psalm,  The  Second,  211. 

Ruth,  96. 

Trust  and  Waiting,  229. 

Vision  of  the  Dry  Bones,  The, 
278, 

Waiting,  237. 


INDEX  OF  TEXTS. 


Genesis. 

PAGE 

V.  21-24  I 

XXV.  7,  8 25 

„ 8 30 

XXXV.  I 45 

Exodus. 

XV.  23-25 58 

Numbers. 

xxiv.  II  63 

Deuteronomy. 
xxxiv.  9 75 

Joshua. 

V.  13-15  82 

Judges. 

9 89 

Ruth. 


2 Samuel. 

PAGE 

xii.  7 

lOI 

I Kings. 

xix.  13  

1 1 1 

V 

I2I 

2 Kings. 

vi 

134 

2 Chronicles. 

XXXV.  21  

146 

Job. 

i-  8,  9 

155 

Book  of,  I 

166 

„ 2 

175 

3 

184 

„ 4 

194 

» 5 

202 

Psalms 


PAGE 

xxvii.  8 217 

li-  5 223 

Ixii.  I,  2 229 

» 5,6  237 

cxxi 242 

cxxxvii.  1-6  ...  248 

Isaiah, 

Book  of  257 

vi.  1-3  268 

Ezekiel. 

xxxvii.  3 278 

Daniel. 

iv.  37 288 

vi.  22...  ...  297 

Hebrews. 

xi.  7 9 

„ 20 39 

« 21 150 


1.  22  ... 


96 


ii. 


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Maps,  and  other  Illustrations. 

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The  late  Dean  Stanley  published  a new  and  revised  edition  of  his 
“ Sinai  and  Palestine.”  In  it  he  made  considerable  editions  and  cor- 
rections, giving  the  work  the  final  impress  of  his  scholarship,  taste  and 
ability.  This  edition  has  been  carefully  conformed  to  the  last  English 
edition — including  the  new  maps  and  illustrations,  and  is  herewith  com- 
mended anew  AS  THE  MOST  READABLE  AS  WELL  AS  THE 
MOST  ACCURATE  WORK  ON  THE  SUBJECT  IN  THE  ENG- 
LISH LANGUAGE. 

Rev.  Dr.  H.  M.  Field,  Editor  of  “A'.  Y.  Evangelist/'  says  of  Stanley's  **  Sinai 
and  Palestine"  : “We  had  occasion  for  its  constant  use  in  crossing  the  desert,  and  in 
journeying  through  the  Holy  Land,  and  can  bear  witness  at  once  to  its  accuracy  and  to 
the  charm  of  its  descriptions.  Of  all  the  helps  we  had  it  was  by  far  the  most  cap- 
tivating." 

Sent  on  receipt  of  price,  charges  prepaid. 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  & SON,  714  Broadway,  New  York. 


STANDARD  RELIGIOUS  WORKS 


A MANUAL  OF  PREACHING. 

Rev.  Franklin  W.  Fisk,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  in  Chicago 
Theological  Seminary,  Crown  octavo  voL,  cloth.  $1.50. 

This  woik  sets  forth  and  illustrates  the  principles  and  rules  of  Homiletics  in  a brief 
and  practical  manner.  Although  chiefly  designed  for  theological  students  and  young 
ministers,  it  is  believed  that  the  treatise  will  be  of  service  to  older  pastors.  Reference 
is  made  to  the  most  recent  literature,  both  of  the  pulpit  and  of  works  on  Homiletics. 
The  method  followed  in  the  volume  is,  first,  to  take  a sermon  in  pieces  . and  inspect  its 
principal  parts,  ancf  then  to  show  how  to  gather  materials  and  form  a sermon.  1 he  aim 
has  been  to  make  the  work,  in  a brief  and  practical  way,  as  helpful  as  possible  to  the 
preacher. 

“Many  will  welcome  this  manual  for  its  clear,  logical  and  thorough  presentation 
of  the  whole  subject.” — N.  V.  Independent. 

Chicago  Interior  szys  : “The  book  is  precisely  what  it  claims  to  be — a practical 
manual  of  Preaching.  Its  style  is  simple  and  perspicuous,  and  just  what  the  author  com- 
mends in  the  sermon.  On  every  page  the  meaning  stares  the  reader  full  in  the  face.” 

Presbyterian  Review  : “ Back  of  this  modest  inanual  lie  twenty-five  years  of  diligent 
study  and  valuable  experience.  The  volume  carries  on  every  page  the  characteristics 
that  we  should  expect  to  find  in  it.  It  is  unpretending^  direct^  honest,  manly.  Its 
pages  are  full  of  references  to  authorities  and  illustrations.” 

REVIVALS;  HOW  AND  WHEN? 

By  Rev.  W.  W.  Newell,  D.D.  With  steel  portrait,  i vol.,  i2mo. 
$1.25.  {3d  thousand.) 

This  is  no  ordinary  book  on  the  subject  of  Revivals  of  Religion.  It  does  not  com- 
mend great  excitement  followed  by  depressing  apathy.  It  favors  a religious  quicken- 
ing and  an  ingathering  of  souls  every  passing  year.  It  does  not  commend  a theory.  It 
is  eminently  practical.  It  gives  the  exact  experience  of  persons  who,  in  the  greatest 
variety  of  seemingly  hopeless  conditions,  have  been  taught  of  the  Lord  just  how  to 
secure  a spiritual  blessing.  It  shows  how  the  Revival  has  been  secured  and  conducted 
in  the  Church,  the  Household,  the  Bible  Class,  the  Sabbath  School,  the  Missionary  and 
the  Temperance  circle. 

ARCHBISHOP  LEIGHTON’S  BIOGRAPHY. 

With  Notes  and  Selections  from  his  Writings.  By  William  Blair,  D.D. 
Handsomely  bound  in  white  parchment,  gilt  top  and  side.  $1.25. 

“The  memoir  is  admirably  composed,  . . . the  general  contents  include  va- 

rious rare  spiritual  treasures,  in  which  the  mind  of  Leighton  was  so  fruitful.” — New 
York  Churchman. 


NEW  WORK  BY  REV.  W.  M.  TAYLOR,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

JOHN  KNOX. 

With  a fine  Steel  Portrait.  Engraved  by  Holl,  from  a Painting  in  the 
possession  of  Lord  Somerville.  i2mo,  cloth.  $1.25. 

This  work  gives  a vivid,  comprehensive  and  accurate  account  of  the  life  and  work 
of  the  great  Scottish  Reformer.  It  includes  a careful  and  well  ordered  summary  of  the 
career  of  Knox  in  England,  as  that  has  been  brought  to  light  by  the  recent  investiga- 
tions of  Lorimer  and  others.  Particular  attention  has  been  given  to  the  course  of 
events  in  Scotland  during  the  last  thirteen  years  of  the  Reformer’s  life,  and  his  inter- 
views with  Queen  Mary,  as  well  as  his  work  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  Scottish 
Church,  are  described  with  fullness  of  detail  and  independence  of  judgment.  The  story 
IT  admirably  told,  the  interest  being  maintained  from  first  to  last,  so  that  the  booK 
will  be  at  once  delightful  to  the  young  and  instructive  to  those  of  maturer  years. 

Copies  sent  by  mail,  post  paid,  on  receipt  of  price. 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  A SON,  714  Broadway,  New  York. 


REV.  DR.  WM.  M.  TAYLOR’S  WORKS 


Contrary  Winds  and  Other  Sermons. 

Crown  8vo  Volume,  Cloth.  $1.75.  3d  Edition. 

“This  work  touches  on  numerous  phases  of  life  and  thought  and 
experience,  showing  that  the  author  has  lived  through  a vast  deal  and 
has  been  made  the  richer  and  stronger  by  it.  It  leaves  the  impression 
of  wisdom  that  comes  from  actual  experience,  dealing  with  life  rather 
than  speculations,  and  so  comes  home  to  the  heart  and  conscience.  It 

SHOWS  A WIDE  RANGE  OF  READING  AND  CLOSE  GRAPPLE  WITH  THE 
DIFFICULT  PROBLEMS  OF  OUR  TIME.  Such  preaching  is  tonic  and  in- 
vigorating. It  strengthens  the  heart  and  fortifies  the  will  to  overcome 
trials  and  conquer  temptations  and  achieve  victory.” — N.  Y.  Christian 
at  Work. 

The  Congregationalist  says : “Its  variety  of  theme  and  the  never- 
failing  intellectual  power  which  it  illustrates,  the  author’s  reverent  posi- 
tiveness of  faith,  his  broad  and  intimate  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
and  the  richness  of  his  personal  spiritual  experiences — never  obtruded 
but  always  underlying  his  words — render  it  a volume  of  rare  and  precious 
value  to  the  Christian  believer,  and  A capital  specimen  of  manly, 
BUSINESS-LIKE  DISCUSSION  TO  ALL  OTHERS  WHO  CARE  TO  READ 

WHAT  A Christian  has  to  say  for  his  religion.” 

N.  Y.  Churchfnan  : “Sermons  practical  in  their  nature,  full  of 
deep  thought  and  wise  counsel.  They  will  have  as  they  deserve  a wide 
circulation. 


Now  Ready— 4th  Edition  of 

THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  LIFE 

AND  OTHER  SERMONS. 

By  WM.  M.  TAYLOR,  D.D. 

With  a Fine  Portrait  on  Steel  by  Ritchie.  Crown  8vo 
VoL.,  Extra  Cloth,  $1.75. 

“In  variety  of  theme,  in  clearness  and  penetration  of  vision,  in 
distinctness  of  aim,  in  intensity  of  purpose,  in  energy  and  well-directed 
effort,  etc.,  this  volume  is  perhaps  without  its  equal  in  the  language.” 

— The  Scotsman, 

Providence  Journal : “ The  directness,  earnestness,  descriptive  and 
illustrative  power  of  the  preacher,  and  his  rare  gift  for  touching  the  con- 
science and  the  heart,  are  fully  exemplified  in  these  eloquent  discourses.” 

N.  Y.  Evangelist'.  “They  have  the  noble  simplicity  and  clearness 
of  the  truth  itself,  and  which,  fixing  the  attention  of  the  reader  from  the 
beginning,  holds  it  to  the  end.  It  is  impossible  to  read  them  without 
the  constant  sense  of  the  personality  of  the  author.” 


Copies  sent  on  receipt  of  price,  post-paid,  by 
A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  & SON.  714  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK. 


